New Delhi, December 22
The Income Tax Department has warned
taxpayers against sharing their user ID and password with any unauthorised
person, saying they, too, would be liable to face consequences for misuse of
their confidential information.
In an advisory to taxpayers, the department’s
TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) Centralised Processing Cell (CPC) told assessees
that their “user ID and password are the most sensitive information, misuse of
which can lead to tampering of confidential TDS-related information, your own
sensitive data and deductee-related confidential information”.
It said, “If a password is hacked or
stolen, it can result in information security breach, leading to undesirable
consequences, including privacy violations.”
It asked taxpayers to exercise
caution in use of log-in credentials at TRACES, which should not be disclosed
to any unintended or unauthorised individual. “If shared, the person using
login credentials shall also be liable to consequences,” it added.
TDS Reconciliation Analysis and
Correction Enabling System (TRACES) helps easy filing of tax deducted at source
(TDS) or tax collected at source (TCS) correction statements by
deductors/collectors and related functionalities.
The taxman asked users to secure
their password with at least eight characters in length and a combination of
lower case, upper case, numeric and special characters.
“Do not write your password on
notepads or the whiteboard at your desk,” it cautioned.
“Keeping sensitive information such
as passwords in e-mails, folders and files in the computer can be risky. If the
e-mail or computer account is hacked, then the perpetrator could misuse the
passwords, steal money from your bank accounts, misuse your e-mail account or
credit/debit card to access sensitive information from your machine,” it said.
It has also asked users not to use
the same password for different accounts. “Using the same password for more
than one account is similar to carrying one key that unlocks your house, car,
office and safety deposit box. One lost key could let a mischievous
unauthorised user unlock all doors,” the department warned.
It went on to advise against sharing
log-in credentials as also using the login credentials of any person other than
the authorised one appointed by the deductor for carrying out any activity on
TRACES.
“You are
requested to similarly treat Digital Signature Certificate with utmost
security, as the user ID and password on TRACES,” it said. PTI
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