The Department of Revenue is a department of the

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...

responsible for the administration of 32 different state taxes in South Carolina. The Department is responsible for licensing and taxing all

manufacturers Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a range ...

wholesalers Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

and

retailers Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomin ...

liquor Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard ...

s. The Department is also responsible for enforcing the Bingo Act of 1996 which affects manufacturers, distributors, organizations and promoters. Coin-operated device tax is collected from all manufactures, distributors or owners of such devices or machines. Owners of such machines must also be licensed.

Tax records theft

On August 13, 2012, an unidentified remote attacker compromised systems at the Department of Revenue. The attacker initially penetrated the system using

phishing Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent (e.g., spoofed, fake, or otherwise deceptive) message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious softwar ...

emails to employees. The attacker then installed a

backdoor A back door is a door in the rear of a building. Back door may also refer to: Arts and media * Back Door (jazz trio), a British group * Porta dos Fundos (literally “Back Door” in Portuguese) Brazilian comedy YouTube channel. * Works so title ...

. Over the next two months, the attacker remotely compiled and downloaded data such as employee password hashes and the tax records dating from 1998 to 2011. On October 10, the

United States Secret Service The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and ...

notified the SC Department of Revenue of a possible breach. The attacker ceased activities on October 17, having compromised a total of 44 systems. As of early 2013, this is the largest ever

cyberattack A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted ...

on a US state government, with 3.8 million unencrypted Social Security numbers (equivalent to over 78% of South Carolina's population) stolen along with private and business-related financial information. South Carolina contracted with private credit-reporting agency

Experian Experian is an American–Irish multinational data analytics and consumer credit reporting company. Experian collects and aggregates information on over 1 billion people and businesses including 235 million individual U.S. consumers and more t ...

to provide South Carolina residents and other affected individuals with a year of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection.South Carolina Offers Details of Data Theft and Warns It Could Happen Elsewhere
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References

External links

{{authority control State alcohol agencies of the United States Taxation in South Carolina

Revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...

US state tax agencies