Treasury office faults IRS
computer security
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
Oct 16, 2008
Two new IRS computer systems that will eventually cost
taxpayers almost $2 billion are being put into service with known security
and privacy vulnerabilities, a Treasury watchdog said in a report on October
16, 2008.
The office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration said Internal Revenue Service officials failed to ensure that
identified weaknesses had been addressed before putting the new systems into
use.
Inspector General J. Russell George said it was "very
troublesome" that the IRS "was aware of, and even self-identified, these
weaknesses."
The report focused on the Customer Account Data Engine, which
will provide the foundation for managing all taxpayer accounts, and the
Account Management Services system, which will provide faster and improved
access by employees to taxpayer account data.
Both systems are gradually being put into use. CADE, scheduled
to cost more than $1 billion through 2012 to develop and operate, this year
processed about 20 percent of the 142 billion returns filed. AMS, still in
its initial stages, will cost more than $700 million to develop and maintain
through 2024.
The IG report said the IRS organizations responsible for giving
the go-ahead to partial deployment of the systems were aware of security and
privacy problems but did not consider them significant.
But it said those vulnerabilities increased the risks that
unscrupulous people could gain access to vast amounts of taxpayer
information with little chance of detection and that systems could not be
recovered effectively during an emergency.
It said administrators to the CADE system could access, modify
and delete information without being detected, that contractors could make
changes to system configurations without approval and that backup tapes from
offsite storage facilities were not adequately tested to ensure that data
would be restored without errors or losses.
The report said the CADE system might be vulnerable to
malicious code attacks such as computer viruses.
Similarly, it said the auditing controls for the AMS system
were not sufficient to make sure that illegal browsing, changes or theft of
taxpayer files would be detected.
The report recommended that the committee in charge of
approving implementation of new stages of the systems consider all security
vulnerabilities before giving that approval and that interim measures be put
in place when significant security problems have been identified. It said
the IRS agreed with their recommendations.
___
On the Net:
Treasury Inspector General: http://www.ustreas.gov/tigta
Obama-Victory-Problem-Offshore-Financial-Centers
Obama-Tax-Proposals
2009-IRS-Inflation-Adjustments
IRS-Computer-Defects
Identity-Theft-IRS-Records
IRS-Guidance-Advice
2009-Income-Tax-Deductions-Exemptions
Breaking-Tax-News
First-Time-Homebuyer-Credit
Internal-Revenue-Manual-Update
Separate-Unequal-Tax-Systems
States-Increase-Tax-Collection
State-Tax-Burden-Businesses
Taxpayer-Victory-Mutual-Life-Insurance
Tax-Return-Preparer-Errors
US-Companies-Shifting-Income-Offshore
How-Rich-Cheat-Taxes
Home-Foreclosure-Tax
Energy-Tax-Credits-2009
Charitable-Tax-Tips
Fraudulent-Tax-Refunds
Self-Employed-Pension-Deductions
Auto-Mileage-Deduction-2009
IRS-Loses-in-Court
Saver's-Tax-Credit
Charitable-Donations
IRS-Speeds-Tax-Lien-Relief