Federal tax collectors share distressing news: Hackers gained access to personal information of 104,000 taxpayers this spring through an online service the government uses to let Americans see their past tax returns. Criminals used the information to submit more than 14,000 phony tax returns, costing the U.S. Treasury about $50 million, officials say.

That huge data breach, revealed last week, is the latest example of identity theft and its potentially serious risk for just about every adult. The Internal Revenue Service, our country's tax agency, confronts a scary surge in online tax scams by increasingly sophisticated criminals. "It is facing the same problems that all the major data providers have," says William Gale, an expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. The agency is asking Congress for an additional $82 million in the coming fiscal year to prevent identity theft and refund fraud, much of it for long-delayed technology upgrades.

Staying ahead of fraudsters is hard, the new disclosure shows. Many companies, particularly retail stores and health insurers, have had data security breaches. At least 70 million Target customers were affected during the December 2013 holiday season -- one of the biggest cases. Russia is widely seen as a base for cybercrime because of lax enforcement by that government.

IRS statement: "Unauthorized third parties had access to . . . more than 100,000 accounts. . . . These [hacking] attempts were quite complex in nature and appear to have started in February and ran through mid-May." – May 27 website post

Agency leader says: "These are not amateurs but organized crime syndicates that not only we, but others in the financial industry, are dealing with." – John Koskinen, IRS commissioner

Tech reporter says: "Getting cybercrime under control is difficult. . . . Cybercrime is not going to go away any time soon." – James Lewis, CNN