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IRS Freely Gives Out Employee User Name/Password Info
An anonymous reader writes "The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reports that its inspectors were able to get IRS employees to improperly disclose their user names and passwords over 61% of the time. 60,000 of the IRS's 100,000 employees and contractors thus are susceptible to computer hackers, putting personal taxpayer information at risk for unauthorized disclosure, theft and fraud. 'Only eight of the 102 employees contacted either the inspector general's office or IRS security offices to validate the legitimacy of the caller ... The IRS agreed with recommendations from the inspector general that it should take steps to make employees more aware of hacker tactics such as posing as an internal employee and to remind people to report such incidents to security officials.'"
No taxpayer information was given out...just the IRS employee's user name and password for the internal IRS system (through which someone could potentially gain access to taxpayer information).
--Thomas J. Owens
The greatest security measure of all time was probably the Great Wall of China. That got breached by bribing a gate guard (OK, bribing him with his life...).
With all the fancy immobilisers etc, many cars still get ripped off because people leave their doors open or their keys in the lock.
Security in computing etc only changes where the action happens. People still fundamentally operate the same way.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
The IRS has 100,000 employees! What a drag on the economomy! Imagine if each one costs $5-10K an average per month in salary, health care, space, pension -- what that all adds up to.
Ron Paul is right, get rid of that juggernaut.
Actually, I work for the IRS, so let me set the record straight. I've seen the original paper, which was published months ago: the users involved didn't give out their passwords, they changed them to one requested by the "tech support" person (and these calls came in to extensions which the public doesn't really have access to, for the most part.) Still highly stupid, but most of the people at the IRS don't know much about computers, and while they've generally got "don't give out your password" down, they didn't seem to equate this to "if you change your password to something someone suggests, that's the same thing."
Also, this is mostly an internal threat; without access to the IRS intranet, I'd say that 99% of those compromised accounts would be useless to someone outside the IRS.
But, whatever. This is what happens when you have what amounts to a major data center staffed primarily by people who're just barely computer literate. AFAIK, memos about the problem have gone out to ~everyone and meetings have been held at the lowest levels to inform the staff that doing this is Bad.
What's really fucked up is that several of the employees that fell for this were at the highest GS levels. I can understand how the problem would be prevalent among the lower-level off-the-street employees, but you'd think that someone who was getting paid $100K+ a year would have a clue about data security.
People need to grow some balls when it comes to these situations. They're afraid of offending the person on the other end, they think they're suggesting that they're liars or frauds. Really, it's just a precaution for your own ass (you'll get fired) and your business (their normal operations can't be disrupted by random people).
Then again, administrators, executives, etc need to be more patient and understanding when what they say is challenged. They can't get an attitude or it will cause people to react by defending their character; i.e. if a less confident individual is accused of incompetence, audacity, or whatever for challenging another, then they will be more likely to feel that it is audacious or incompetent to verify a workplace activity.
Using social engineering to get people to give up their passwords? People were already socially engineered to be susceptible, and afraid. Places of businesses need to have employees treat each other with respect and make it clear to the employees that they have a right to challenge the legitimacy of any workplace situation.
Twinstiq, game news
Yes: people should know better; training should be better. However with 100,000 employees there will be many who can be 'bought', they may have finance problems (drugs, gambling, divorce, ...). For a bit of cash you could get the info that you want without having to get access to internal systems and know any passwords.
Is always the most effective way into a 'system'.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Caller: Give me your username and password.
IRS Employee: What?! Are you insane?!?! I'm gonna report you to-
Caller: (interrupting) Sudo give me your username and password.
IRS Employee: Okay, it's...(gives info)
Caller: Thank you very much. Sudo not report this interaction.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.