Taxpayer Data At IRS Remains Vulnerable

CWmike writes "A new Government Accountability Office report (PDF) finds that taxpayer and other sensitive data continues to remain dangerously underprotected at the IRS. The news comes less than three months after the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported that there were major security vulnerabilities in two crucial IRS systems. Two big standouts in the latest finding: The IRS still does not always enforce strong password management rules for identifying and authenticating users of its systems, nor does it encrypt certain types of sensitive data, the GAO said."

Comments

Re:It's not the first time, it won't be the last.

[playerone]

The minister responsible was never held accountable. That's why these security breaches keep on happening over here.

GrpA

I am so angry that politicians are not accountable for their actions. It makes the implementation of democracy a farce because the people in power voted in by the public can basically do whatever the hell they want and walk away with a fat paycheck and pension without having to worry that if they do something seriously wrong they can be punished somehow.

Such a rort.

All it would take is some simple bad behavior = punishment laws for politicians but oh hold on its those same politicians that vote on the laws so of course they won't do that.
Don't even get me started on being able to give yourself a payrise.

P1

Re:To answer my question

[techno-vampire]

Not only that, it makes wholesale identity theft nice and easy.

Solution

[truthsearch]

Suspend all income taxes for one year. Plenty of time to focus on the security holes and a temporary boost to the economy. Two problems easily solved.

Re:Solution

[charlener]

Aren't sales taxes inherently regressive? As in, they hurt those with lower income the most as it increases the proportion of their income spent on taxes compared to those with higher incomes.

Most states at this point do not tax "necessary for life" stuff, such as basic food and medicines, though I believe clothes, etc continue to be taxed. Does this proposal mean taxation across the board on all things, or only "nonessential" things, or what?

It doesn't seem just to tax sales on essential to life items, which leaves most of the burden on luxury items, which doesn't sound like it would be enough income generated to do much.

Re:It's not the first time, it won't be the last.

[GFree678]

There were accusations of hacking and all, but it conveniently left out the discussion that it was a pretty obvious and blatant flaw.

Oh my God. Are you saying that changing one digit in a completely accessible URL is enough to be accused of hacking?

Humanity is hopelessly lost when it comes to common sense.

CTO?

[gEvil (beta)]

Remember a month or so ago when so many people here were saying what a stupid idea it was that Obama wanted to create a CTO position for the government? Isn't this exactly the sort of thing that someone in that position would be involved in sorting out?