Dave Nyczepir
The IRS has cybersecurity deficiencies leaving taxpayer data open to misuse, tampering or disclosure due, in part, to the agency’s over-reliance on old systems, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.
An annual assessment of the IRS‘s IT program found the agency needed to boost its abilities to detect cyber events through continuous monitoring and keep track of its hardware and software.
The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act passed in March gave the IRS an additional $1 billion in funding, including provisions to modernize legacy systems. But conservative political groups have opposed further efforts to increase the tax collection agency’s budget, reported The Washington Post.
“The reliance on legacy systems and aged hardware and software, and its use of outdated programming languages, pose significant risks to the IRS’s ability to deliver its mission,” reads the inspector general’s report released Tuesday. “Modernizing the IRS’s computer systems has been a persistent challenge for many years and will…
