Main article
The Government Accountability Office has recently declared that certain "security gaps" (whatever that means) may put our (taxpayer) information at risk. According to the GAO, "persistent information security weaknesses that place (it) at risk of disruption, fraud or inappropriate disclosure of sensitive information."
Well that certainly makes me feel better about filing my tax returns this year. So let's see if I get this....I am supposed to file a tax return to the IRS that includes, basically every piece of personal information humanly possible. Alright, understood. So the information I am supplying to the IRS, which tells them everything about me, is not secured and could possibly be hacked, stolen, etc etc? Well.....that makes sense (but actually the complete opposite of that). I would hope I could at least have some protection when I am at my most vulnerable. Well, looking at the bright side that tax return money is the only money I will have until next year's tax return so a thief won't get too much....(laugh with me).
The GAO reported that the IRS fixed 29 of the known weaknesses since last year. Now, the interesting piece of information is that the total number of these weaknesses is 98. 29 of 98 isn't a figure I am too comfortable with. Aside from these 98 security risks identified, IRS data centers add even more to the security weaknesses. In a three year span nearly 500 IRS laptops were stolen, and some IRS data centers had administrative log-ins that were unencrypted.
All the more reason to make sure you are protected as much as possible. You can never be too protected, especially when the government is failing to keep us safe from online criminals.
No comments:
Post a Comment