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IRS: LAND OF LOST LAPTOPS?

November 16, 2006

News item from today's Tax Analysts online report: ($link)

An IRS spokeswoman confirmed on November 15 that 478 IRS laptop computers, many containing taxpayer information, have been lost or stolen since 2002.

The spokeswoman told Tax Analysts that 112 of the laptops contained "sensitive data," which is defined as personal identification information and can include taxpayers' Social Security numbers. The data was encrypted on all but 33 of 112 laptops, the spokeswoman said.

That's a lot of laptops. Is Pierre Pierce dating IRS agents now?

I wonder if there is any data for how often laptops are stolen. It would be interesting to see whether the IRS is any more prone to laptop loss than anybody else.

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