Released: July 27, 2006

Data may be exposed at IRS

Source: By Kevin McCoy, USA Today

IRS employees could be gaining unauthorized access to confidential taxpayer information because many of their supervisors aren’t checking on them, a new government audit reported Wednesday.
On average, 42% of IRS supervisors sampled in the audit certified that they had reviewed security reports showing whether their staffers gained access to taxpayer information without authorization.

The certification rate ranged from a low of 15% for IRS supervisors in Austin to a high of 75% for their Brookhaven, N.Y., counterparts, according to the audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

“As a result, employees may be browsing their spouses’ or other employees’ tax information with little chance of detection,” the audit concluded.

Underscoring the potential danger, auditors reported that they found “a clear violation” of data safeguards designed to prevent unauthorized access to taxpayer information during a site visit to one unidentified IRS location.

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