Fergie's Tech Blog

Auditors find IRS security holes

David Perera writes in FCW.com:

An audit of Internal Revenue Service computer systems shows that unauthorized access to tax information systems remains a danger.

Individuals who leave or employees whose duties have changed continue to have access to confidential information because IRS managers have not followed existing IT security procedures, according to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) audit released last month.

TIGTA auditors looked at five IRS systems for six months ending in January 2005 and found that 21 percent of registered users “no longer had a business need to have systems access,” the report states.

Auditors found five instances of system access by former employees. They also found that of 513 employees that did have a business need, in only a quarter of those cases did proper documentation for system access exist.

posted by Fergie @ 8/04/2005 10:14:00 AM