Watchdog Finds Serious Gaps In IRS Contractors' Taxpayer Data Security
TIGTA identified deficiencies in physical security controls designed to safeguard taxpayer data, security vulnerabilities in the information systems used to process taxpayer information, and weaknesses in information system configuration controls. getty The IRSs effort to convert paper tax documents into digital records is supposed to make tax administration faster and less dependent on manual processing. But a new watchdog memo raises serious questions about whether the private contractors entrusted with that work are adequately protecting taxpayer information. In an alert focused on the IRSs Zero Paper Initiative (ZPI), the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) identified several issues, including physical security failures, unresolved computer vulnerabilities, and weak system configuration controls at two contractor facilities. The findings raise concerns about taxpayer privacy and the IRS‘s use of private contractors who were permitted to handle some of the federal government’s most sensitive records without consistently meeting IRS security requirements. That would be concerning under any circumstances. It is particularly so after the massive disclosure of taxpayer information by Charles Edward Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor employed by Booz Allen Hamilton. The leak returned to the news after a federal judge recently nixed the Trump administration‘s proposed settlement of the president’s lawsuit over Littlejohns disclosure of his