More than eight years after initiating an upgrade to its data loss prevention plan, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) still does not have all systems operational to prevent the loss of taxpayers’ personal information, according to a new report from the Treasury Inspector General’s (TIGTA) office.
The report, issued Aug. 22, said the IRS has taken some steps to prevent the loss of personally identifiable information through email, but “continued delays with implementing other components are preventing realization of the full benefits of the data loss prevention solution.”
The systems that are not in place include internal safeguards to monitor and block confidential data from being printed, faxed or copied to USB drives or other removable media. The TIGTA report found that the cause of the delays include “technical, project management and administrative issues.” The delays have also resulted in the inefficient use of resources and about $1.2 million in software costs for non-operational systems.
The IRS has agreed with TIGTA’s recommendations in the report and vowed to have all data loss prevention systems in place by June 15, 2021.
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