Tax documents for school employees potentially stolen across Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County Office of Education is investigating reports that fraudulent tax returns were filed using employee data after recipients received letters about such filings; while LACOE is reviewing the issue with external experts and the W-2 vendor, the extent of affected districts and employees is unclear. Separately, the Rhysida ransomware gang published a 4.5 TB data tranche from Bellflower Unified School District that included W-2 and tax-related files, suggesting a confirmed data breach with exposed payroll/tax information, raising risks of identity theft and fraudulent tax activity.