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IRS loses hundreds of laptops, fails its own audit »

Posted by: TechnologyExpert 2 years, 7 months ago

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Over the past few years, the Internal Revenue Service has lost several hundred laptops according to a new report from the IRS Inspector General J. Russell George. Between 2003 and Feb 2006, the IRS lost nearly 500 laptops mostly from agents' homes and cars. In addition, 111 of those laptops were either lost or stolen right from IRS offices.

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TechnologyExpert

I am Editor-in-Chief at Alice Hill's RealTechNews (http://www.realtechnews.com). I also have my own blog (Tech-Ex) at http://TechnologyExpert.Blogspot.com. Finally ...

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Comments: 25

Avg rating: (+5/-2 3)
BoxMonkey
April 6, 2007, 3:57 a.m.
Ha!
Avg rating: (+4/-0 4)
riverdalian
April 6, 2007, 1:50 p.m.
OOO-Rah!
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
joeblowe
April 6, 2007, 9:21 a.m.
I think they should be checking to see what kind of laptops the agent's kids are taking to school. I mean, after all, IRS agents are USED to stealing, right. If they can steal from ordinary citizens, why not from their employer? (Who, I guess, is STILL us ordinary citizens...)
Avg rating: (+2/-0 2)
Ciera-Marie
April 6, 2007, 9:54 a.m.
"In addition, 111 of those laptops were either lost or stolen right from IRS offices.
The report criticizes agents for leaving unencrypted taxpayer data on the laptops and for failing to inform the affected taxpayers about the data theft, something major corporations are mandated to do by various state and federal laws. "The Internal Revenue Service is not adequately protecting taxpayer data on laptop computers," says the report.
A typical IRS laptop would have around 10 to 25 active tax cases, but some of the more "gung-ho" agents could have several dozen cases stored on their laptops."
Umm, Hello? This is serious. Imagine if your case happens to be on one of those laptops. Talk about giving the fox the keys to the chicken coop. Not only is it your identity, your spouse's and childrens. God I'm ill.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
texangelwings
April 6, 2007, 11:04 a.m.
The IRS lost all of my 1099's and it took them a month to send my income tax papers back minus the 1099's, then to inform me I needed to send them the copies.
(companies only give 4 sets of these 1099's, I am down to two sets, will have to run copies if this keeps up.)
Avg rating: (+0/-1 -1)
paulzimmerman
April 6, 2007, 11:13 a.m.
end organized crime... abolish the irs... :>)
yes, and do ask them about the privacy act of 1974 which
requires ALL federal government agencies to keep ALL personal data collected via a privacy statement on individuals secure and confidential...
Avg rating: (+8/-2 6)
ABANOCLA
April 6, 2007, 2 p.m.
The supreme court has ruled 8 times I believe it is that taxation on a mans or womans work to be unlawful 8 times, and yet we still pay and will be paying more in the near future
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
ghengisghan
April 6, 2007, 3:53 p.m.
I'll go with just about all of the ABOVE...freakin thieves, steal from us , steal from US!
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
esmLIVE
April 6, 2007, 4:27 p.m.
*sigh*
why does this happen?
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
B1BLancer
April 6, 2007, 5:07 p.m.
Would the loss be tax deductible?
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
JenMurdock
April 6, 2007, 6:18 p.m.
If we the people were as irresponsible as most govt employees, this country would still be in the stone age. HA HA HA.
Why do incompetents and liars strive to get into public positions....
Or, why do all these govt types take their lap tops HOME all the time? So people can STEAL THEM? They aren't working at home I'm SURE....
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
lizbethxq
April 6, 2007, 7:22 p.m.
You know, it reminds me of that saying, people in glass houses should not throw stones. I cannot believe this is true. It's kind of funny. We need a branch of government to audit the IRS.
Avg rating: (+7/-0 7)
fotoman1133406
April 7, 2007, 1:21 a.m.
Guys,
OUCH. I wonder how much info was lost, how more vulnerable we have become?
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
JohnnyB
April 7, 2007, 4:01 a.m.
hah they should pay a fine to everyone in the United States, ****** hypocrits
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
zcaveman
April 7, 2007, 9:14 a.m.
Please be my tax info...please, please, please