IRS Leaves Taxpayer Data Largely Unprotected

LogError writes "Two weeks ago, Department of Treasury received a D-minus grade in the Federal Computer Security Report Card for 2005, down from a D-plus grade in 2004. The majority of Treasury systems are those belonging to IRS. The government-wide computer-security grade for 2005 was D-plus, while Homeland Security and Defense both received an F. Grades are based on reports submitted to Congress by the agencies; the reports are required under the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002.8 The scores are meant to reflect whether departments meet federally mandated security standards."

Surprised? Not really.

[AKAImBatman]

IRS Leaves Taxpayer Data Largely Unprotected

This story acts as we should be surprised. The government serves the people. The IRS, on the other hand, serves the government. I let you figure out where the disconnect is.

Security, the Gold Standard

[WillAffleckUW]

Cost of providing security against non-existent WMDs that couldn't reach the US even if they existed ... $100 Billion

Cost of providing security against al-Qaeda attacking US from Iraq, even though they weren't there ... $400 Billion

Cost of providing security against really obvious IRS forms that let people steal your money and assets easily ... $0.0005 Billion (of $500 million)

Realizing you've been taken to the cleaners due to your own gullibility ... Priceless!

What a surprise

[ZorbaTHut]

Here's a question. What does it cost the IRS if taxpayer data is stolen?

Oh yeah. Squat. Why *should* they care? It's no skin off their back.

If our government wanted to make sure this didn't happen, they'd fine the IRS every time there was a security breach. In fact, they'd fine the IRS just for having bad security. And then things would improve.

'Course, in reality, why would they do that? There's no reason our government would want to hurt the IRS in any way.

Really, what should be happening is the people of America suing the IRS for not guarding our information properly. I wonder how *that* lawsuit would go.

Here's the fundamental issue: If you want someone to behave in a certain way, you have to make it worth their while. Right now the IRS has no incentive for keeping our info safe. Want to change that? Change it at the source.

Re:Careful...

[VJ42]

they have an A doubleplus in 'tracking your ass down and throwing you in jail'.

It's for this reason that I've never understood why governments don't set the tax services (I don't live in the USA; We call the equivilent of the IRS the Inland revenue, there's no service about it on this side of the Atlantic.) onto "Teh Terrorists!!!" They are the only branch of the state that can track anyone down quickely and eaisly; surley they should be put in chrge of what you call "homeland security". ;)

Defense gets an F?

[Araxen]

It's pretty funny the department that gets the most funding gets a F grade. What a joke!

Meanwhile NASA only gets a drop in the bucket.

Re:What a surprise

[TopShelf]

So the IRS's budget would get reduced, leaving them fewer resources to do their job (of which the scope won't change), so the situation gets worse... I don't see that fining the IRS would do any good.

Instead, I'd put the heat on your local Congressman, as well as write to this gang [house.gov], who provides Congressional oversight to the IRS.

Dig up egregious examples of conduct (in the article, it mentions an IRS contractor digging up political info on taxpayers), and write to your local newspaper.

Re:Defense gets an F?

[Doc Scratchnsniff]

You may have cause and effect backwards. These scores appear to be self-reported. The department of Defense has realized that the best way to get more money is to give themselves a bad score.

Re:Just one more reason to enact the FairTax

[sasdrtx]

Oxymoron.

The only fair tax is NO tax.

Re:Just one more reason to enact the FairTax

[Syberghost]

And in regards to this specific story, under the Fair Tax there wouldn't be an IRS, nor would any other government agency need comprehensive files about every single American that contain sufficient information to steal their identity.

Hackers can't steal what isn't there.

Re:Just one more reason to enact the FairTax

[Anonymous Coward]

A government that prints money on demand doesn't need to tax the labor of the citizens it ostensibly serves.

The biggest irony in all tax reform debate is this: The money isn't real - it's a fiction. It's made up. The Federal Reserve issues Federal Reserve Notes -fiat money, it has no real value, and loans it to the Federal Government... huh?

Basically, they create money from nothing, loan it to themselves, and then charge interest to themselves to make a profit on something that was created out of thin air in the first place!

NICE work if you can get it.

Oh, and banks? They operate on a principle called "fractional reserves", which means that they are allowed to loan more money than they have on hand... in essence, banks create money from nothing, too.

Gosh, I wish I could do that... but it'd be called counterfeiting.

Then to top it all off, we have to pay taxes on what we're paid for our labor - real work for fiat money, only to give part of it back.

It's a wonderful swindle - I'm trying to figure out how to get in on it myself.

Re:Just one more reason to enact the FairTax

[TrappedByMyself]

I'm confused, is this simple real world example that hard to comprehend?

at 6% now, 23% fair tax, 5$ at Walmart, 6$ at Mom&Pop

now
Mom&Pop = $6.36
Walmart = $5.30
difference = $1.06

fair tax
Mom&Pop = $7.38
Walmart = $6.15
difference = $1.23

As the sales tax percentage goes up, the price difference goes up. People look at the prices of the products, not arcane crap like the percentage of take home pay and the increase over what the price used to be. The higher the tax goes, the bigger advantage it is for the lower price.