Sunday, October 19, 2008

Surprise! IRS computers vulnerable!

New IRS computers. Yeah, they know. No, they're not doing anything about it.

It's only taxpayer info at risk.
The Internal Revenue Service deployed two major computer applications despite known security vulnerabilities that put taxpayer information and other sensitive data at risk, according to a report from the IRS inspector general released on Thursday.

[snip]

"Until security control vulnerabilities are corrected, the IRS is jeopardizing the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the massive volume of taxpayer data processed and stored by the CADE and the AMS," the audit warned.
Seems the IRS Grand Poobahs are a bit miffed - at the release of the report. The attitude must be "hey, these systems are no different from all our other systems":
This report is the latest in a series of audits on security weaknesses in IRS systems from the agency's IG. Earlier this month, the IG reported on security vulnerabilities in computer systems at the IRS Office of Research, Analysis and Statistics. In September, the IG reported on unauthorized Web servers connected to the agency's networks.
Glad to see that the Fed.Gov is going to play a much bigger role in the banking sector. No doubt, they'll make bank's online security just as good as the IRS'. [/sarcasm].

Come the administration of The One, I hope that he can make the IRS change their attitude. Oh, I said I was done with sarcasm, didn't I?

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