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It seems that HMRC have had some fraudulent Self Assessment claims submitted through their electronic submissions portal. Under normal circumstances I think we could be forgiven for assuming that this has something to do with the way their portal has been set up, or poor security, but in this case it seems we'd be wrong. From an email they have sent around it seems that their system is intact and secure, and all the submissions have used valid login details and passwords.

It's unknown currently how the login data has been gathered, and as both submission agents and individuals have been affected it could be hard to establish. Current suspicion seems to lie with malware or virus' on the computers used to make the original submissions, but we'll have to wait and see what the outcome is.

HMRC have said that this isn't a large-scale attack, but it is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.

So what does this mean to you? Well HMRC are handling the problem their side, so that isn't something to worry about. What you need to do is just perform basic computer checks, make sure your PC is up to date with it's security patches, make sure your anti-virus software is running and up to date, and maybe consider using a more secure internet browser such as Google Chrome. Lastly I would say don't just rely on your anti-virus software to just run in the background, actually run a scan now and again, it's a pain to do I have to admit, but your details are at risk here (that goes for Mac users too).

If you have a Windows PC and you're not running any anti-virus software, there are some reasonable anti-virus programs out there that are free for home use. I can email you some links if you need them, just drop me an email by clicking Hugo below.

Have a great weekend folks, fingers crossed this weather holds (unless you're a cricket fan in which case lets hope it rains the rest of the week over Headingly).

Hugo
07/08/2009