Check launched into revenue agency over taxpayers’ data leak after hacker attack

Bulgaria’s Commission for Personal Data Protection (CPDP) on 22 July launched a major inspection at the National Revenue Agency (NRA) because of the unprecedented leak of personal data of over 5 million Bulgarians after a hacker attack.

Six members of the Commission for Personal Data Protection will conduct the inspection, which will last until August 16.

Personal data of more than five million people leaked after the Revenue Agency was attacked by a hacker, affecting 3% of its database.

Tsanko Tsolov explained that the Personal Data Protection Commission will carry out an inspection related to the security breach at the NRA. The main objective is to identify the size of the leaked information, the categories of individuals affected and what measures were applied immediately in the 72-hour period after the leak.

Leaked personal data is not just single personal numbers. There is a lot of tax information related to bank accounts, Tsolov added.

The sanction after the inspection by the Commission for Protection of Personal Data can reach up to 4% of the NRA's turnover.