Pssst! Wanna buy a hot computer?
As if you didn't have enough to worry about during this festive tax season, now it turns out that the Internal Revenue Service is practically giving away sensitive data -- and expensive computer equipment on which to read it.
According to a report (PDF file) issued last month by the Treasury Department's Office of the Inspector General for Tax Administration, "IRS employees reported the loss or theft of at least 490 computers between January 2, 2003, and June 13, 2006." This is of special interest to taxpayers because "employees were not properly encrypting data on the computer devices, and password controls over laptop computers were not adequate. As a result, it is likely that sensitive data for a significant number of taxpayers have been unnecessarily exposed to potential identity theft and/or other fraudulent schemes."
So it's not enough that the feds require us all to reveal the details of our financial lives and much of our personal information to tax collectors. That information is also stored with minimum safeguards and made available to anybody with larceny in his heart and a modicum of opportunity.
How clever did the laptop thieves have to be? Not terribly. The report continues: "because a large number of laptop computers were stolen from vehicles and employees’ residences, employees may not have secured their laptop computers in the trunks of their vehicles or locked their laptop computers at home. Further, because 111 incidents occurred within IRS facilities, employees were likely not storing their laptop computers in lockable cabinets while the employees were away from the office."
Wait a minute. So IRS employees are taking sensitive taxpayer data home and leaving it lying around in the trunks of their cars?
Wow. Modern government may be Leviathan, but it's the sort of Leviathan personified by a particularly tiny-brained species of dinosaur. We may all get trampled underfoot more by accident than design.
Think happy thoughts as you get ready to mail in your 1040 form. Just try not to consider where all that information you're volunteering will end up.
According to a report (PDF file) issued last month by the Treasury Department's Office of the Inspector General for Tax Administration, "IRS employees reported the loss or theft of at least 490 computers between January 2, 2003, and June 13, 2006." This is of special interest to taxpayers because "employees were not properly encrypting data on the computer devices, and password controls over laptop computers were not adequate. As a result, it is likely that sensitive data for a significant number of taxpayers have been unnecessarily exposed to potential identity theft and/or other fraudulent schemes."
So it's not enough that the feds require us all to reveal the details of our financial lives and much of our personal information to tax collectors. That information is also stored with minimum safeguards and made available to anybody with larceny in his heart and a modicum of opportunity.
How clever did the laptop thieves have to be? Not terribly. The report continues: "because a large number of laptop computers were stolen from vehicles and employees’ residences, employees may not have secured their laptop computers in the trunks of their vehicles or locked their laptop computers at home. Further, because 111 incidents occurred within IRS facilities, employees were likely not storing their laptop computers in lockable cabinets while the employees were away from the office."
Wait a minute. So IRS employees are taking sensitive taxpayer data home and leaving it lying around in the trunks of their cars?
Wow. Modern government may be Leviathan, but it's the sort of Leviathan personified by a particularly tiny-brained species of dinosaur. We may all get trampled underfoot more by accident than design.
Think happy thoughts as you get ready to mail in your 1040 form. Just try not to consider where all that information you're volunteering will end up.
Labels: privacy, render unto Caesar
posted by J.D. Tuccille at
9:29 AM
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