2016 Seagate — HR/payroll phishing exposed workforce W-2 tax data
Data compromised
Employee W-2 tax information (SSN, wages, withholding metadata)
Technical writeup
March 2016 business-email-compromise style phishing against payroll/HR led Seagate to disclose theft of Form W-2 tax data for U.S. employees, following investigative reporting that all employee W-2s were implicated; IRS and state AG remediation patterns typical for tax-season campaigns.
Root cause
Social engineering / BEC targeting payroll personnel