The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has implemented a number of measures to protect taxpayers against fraud, according to a statement from South Africa’s tax authority.
Sars said that these initiatives were introduced to protect the information of taxpayers and to stop malicious attacks on Sars data.
One such initiative is the two-factor authentication method. The two-factor method adds an extra layer of security by requiring users to input two different authentication methods to login to eFiling.
For the first layer of authentication, users are required to enter their username and password.
After that has been validated as correct, the second layer of authentication requires users to enter a One-Time-Pin (OTP) sent to their preferred security contact details.
Once the the OTP has been successfully validated as correct, users are granted access to their eFiling profile.
The enhancements to the two-factor authentication method includes:
– enforcing two-factor authentication on all individual profiles
– confirming and updating of the security contact details.
The eFiling password requirements have also been enhanced which means that new and changed passwords need to meet the following criteria:
– have a minimum of 8 characters
– contain at least one uppercase, lowercase, numeric and special character
– not include personal information such as name, surname, email address and username
– exclude repetitive or sequential characters like “aaaaa” or “12345” etc.
Sars said that a password meter has been added to give eFilers a visual indication of how strong their password is.
Sars facial recognition change
Earlier this month, SA’s tax authority announced that facial recognition may be a requirement for new eFiling registrations for Personal Income Tax.
Sars said that new eFiling registrations for Personal Income Tax may now require facial recognition.
“Biometric facial recognition authentication is being introduced for all individuals who register for eFiling using a valid South African ID,” Sars said.
The biometric facial recognition was implemented to authenticate taxpayers and protect the information of taxpayers from profile hijacking and identity fraud, according to the How To Register for eFiling and Manage your User Profile report by Sars.
The report said that the photos captured will be matched real-time against the applicable reference data and the system will immediately provide the outcome of the biometric authentication.
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