Daily Archives: April 11, 2007

Protecting your personal data

Just how safe is your personal information when you send in your tax forms to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)? A little over 5 years ago it was revealed that the IRS was missing more than 2300 computers. Eventually 1600 of the 2300 missing computers were located.

A recent internal audit of the IRS fount that “at least” 490 computers, which included 13 desktop computers, were lost or stolen in 387 separate incidents between January 2003 and June 2006. Of the approximately 100,000 employees, 47,000 have been issued laptop computers.

A copy of the report titled “The IRS is not adequately protecting taxpayer data on laptop computers and other portable electronic media devices” can be found on the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration web site.

Every year the IRS processes more than 220 million tax returns containing personal financial information and personally identifiable information such as Social Security Numbers.

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