{"id":2003160,"date":"2023-08-16T22:39:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T02:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/irs-fails-to-plug-it-security-gaps-putting-taxpayer-data-at-risk-watchdog\/"},"modified":"2023-08-16T22:51:44","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T02:51:44","slug":"irs-fails-to-plug-it-security-gaps-putting-taxpayer-data-at-risk-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/irs-fails-to-plug-it-security-gaps-putting-taxpayer-data-at-risk-watchdog\/","title":{"rendered":"IRS neglects IT security, risking taxpayer data: Watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Firs-fails-to-plug-it-security-gaps-putting-taxpayer-data-at-risk-watchdog%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2003160&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div data-post-content=\"true\" class=\"post_content\" id=\"post_content\">\n<h2>The \u200cIRS&#8217;s \u2062Battle to Secure Taxpayer \u2062Information<\/h2>\n<p>The IRS is facing a major challenge in \u200c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/paul-driessen-leftist-intimidation-and-assassination\/\" title=\"Paul Driessen: Leftist Intimidation \u2013 and Assassination?\">protecting taxpayer information<\/a> from cyber attacks. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/michigan-gop-launches-ad-campaign-blasting-whitmer-over-coronavirus-a-lot-of-michiganders-died-in-nursing-homes\/\" title=\"Michigan GOP Launches Ad Campaign Blasting Whitmer over Coronavirus: \u2018A Lot of Michiganders Died in Nursing Homes\u2019\">recent audit report<\/a> by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) \u2064revealed that the IRS \u2062has been struggling to address IT security vulnerabilities, leaving sensitive data at risk.<\/p>\n<p>According to\u200b federal \u200claws, all federal agencies, including the IRS,\u200b are required to identify and fix IT security gaps. However, between 2005 and 2022, the IRS created \u200cover 10,000 corrective action plans to address these weaknesses, but failed to finalize 2,555 of them.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>A Risky Situation<\/h3>\n<p>The failure to\u2062 close these corrective \u200baction plans puts the IRS at risk of \u200bexploitation \u200bby threat \u2064actors, as highlighted by the TIGTA report.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2>A Litany \u2062of Failures<\/h2>\n<p>The TIGTA report revealed that the IRS has eight different status categories for these plans, including accepted, completed, and \u200bin-progress. Shockingly, over 500 plans were\u200c classified as &#8220;late,&#8221; with 23 of them having critical or high-risk severity\u200d ratings. \u200bSome\u200b of these security vulnerabilities were identified six years \u2063ago.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the report found that certain business units within the IRS were not\u2062 creating corrective plans in a timely manner or failing \u2063to provide\u2063 the necessary information. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/irs-fails-to-plug-it-security-gaps-putting-taxpayer-data-at-risk-watchdog\/\" title=\"IRS neglects IT security, risking taxpayer data: Watchdog\">worst-performing units lacked internal management processes<\/a> for handling these plans.<\/p>\n<p>The TIGTA report also criticized the IRS for not accurately tracking the resources required to resolve security weaknesses and failing \u200bto update the estimated budget with actual costs.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Recommendations for Improvement<\/h3>\n<p>The TIGTA recommended that the IRS establish best practices for IT security, develop an agency-wide\u200d process for fixing gaps,\u200c prioritize \u200cstaffing and\u200d resource allocations, and improve budgeting for remedial action.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In response to the \u2064findings, \u200dthe IRS acknowledged \u200dits shortcomings\u200c and \u200cattributed them to \u2064staffing shortages and increasing workloads. The agency pledged \u2063to take steps to strengthen IT security, including \u200dhiring more staff and seeking \u200dinput from stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p>The IRS also expressed its intention to\u200d allocate some of the additional \u200bfunding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, amounting to \u2062$80 \u200cbillion, to \u200daddress IT security weaknesses.<\/p>\n<h2>Loss of Sensitive \u2064Records<\/h2>\n<p>Unfortunately, IT security is not the only area where the IRS has fallen short in\u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/emails-show-ron-wydens-office-lied-about-irs-whistleblower-backing-out-of-senate-meeting\/\" title=\"Ron Wyden's office lied about IRS whistleblower canceling Senate meeting, emails reveal.\">protecting taxpayer data<\/a>. Another recent report revealed that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bus-of-illegals-arrives-outside-vp-harris-home\/\" title=\"Bus of Illegals Arrives Outside VP Harris\u2019 Home\">agency lost track<\/a> of thousands of microfilm cartridges containing millions \u200dof sensitive \u200btax\u200b records.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>A Careless Approach<\/h3>\n<p>The TIGTA review criticized \u2062the IRS for\u2062 its careless handling of\u200d sensitive taxpayer information\u200b and \u2064the loss of valuable\u2062 records.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The IRS is rushing to fix IT security gaps after a Treasury watchdog discovered the agency&#8217;s failure to protect computer systems from cyber attacks that could compromise taxpayer data. Federal laws mandate all agencies to identify vulnerabilities and devise solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":2003161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2003160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2003160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2003161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2003160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2003160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2003160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}