IRS not complying with basic computer security practice

California CPA, Sept, 2007

An audit by the Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration discovered that IRS employees, including managers, are not complying with the basic computer security practice of protecting their passwords.

TIGTA conducted a sting operation, convincing 61 out of 102 IRS employees contacted by telephone to disclose their usernames and temporarily change their passwords to ones TIGTA suggested. Applying TIGTA's "success" rate of 60 percent, almost 60,000 of the IRS's 100,000 employees and contractors are susceptible to computer hackers.

The full report, "Employees Continue To Be Susceptible To Social Engineering Attempts That Could Be Used By Hackers," number 2007-20-107, is available at www.treas.gov/tigta/auditreports/2007reports/200720107fr.pdf.>

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