Tax Update Blog: Permalink

« Previous · Tax Update Blog Home · Next »

TAX INFORMATION SHARED WITH STATES VULNERABLE TO HACKS: REPORT

October 06, 2005

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reports that there are "significant" weaknesses in state tax agencies in securing federal information. The IRS shares income tax information with the states for enforcement purposes.

In this review, we visited four large State tax agencies to which the IRS sends Federal tax information. At all four agencies, we identified significant weaknesses in physical security, user account management, access controls, audit trails, intrusion detection, and firewall systems. These weaknesses place Federal tax information at increased risk of unauthorized use or theft. Hackers and unscrupulous State government employees could exploit these security weaknesses to gain unauthorized access to tax data.

Really makes you want to pay taxes by credit card, doesn't it?

Links:

TIGTA Report
Tax Analysts Free Coverage

      Bookmark: del.icio.us • Digg • reddit