Hacker breached accounts of 700,000 US taxpayer

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The US tax authorities (IRS) said on Friday that the personal information of a further 390,000 individuals may have been accessed by cyber criminals.

In May, the IRS said it discovered the data of 114,000 US taxpayers had been illegally accessed through the "Get Transcript" page since January 2014.

A review conducted by the agency has revealed over 700,000 people affected.

The agency said it was moving quickly to notify those people and would begin mailing notices by the end of February.

In a statement, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said the agency was "committed to protecting taxpayers on multiple fronts".

The IRS said it found a further 295,000 taxpayer accounts were targeted, but not accessed by cyber criminals.

"Get Transcript" hack

In May, the IRS said it had uncovered criminals using personal information collected elsewhere, to access taxpayers "Get Transcript" application on the IRS website.

"Get Transcript" allows individuals to see information from previous years' tax returns.

The application was shut down after the agency discovered the cyberattack.