TIGTA: IRS Exposed 28 Million Taxpayers To Identity Theft By Sending Unencrypted Email

• TIGTA, Employees Sometimes Did Not Adhere to E-Mail Policies,Which Increased the Risk of Improper Disclosure of Taxpayer Information (2017-30-010) (press release)
• TIGTA, Improvements Are Needed to Ensure the Protection of Data the IRS Transfers to External Partners (2017-20-004) (press release)

Washington Times, IRS Exposed Taxpayers’ Info Through Shoddy Emails, Audit Shows:

A surprising number of IRS employees are sending unencrypted emails containing personal taxpayer information to private accounts, putting that information at risk of being stolen, the agency’s inspector general said Thursday.

Auditors found hundreds of unencrypted emails sent that risked leaking taxpayers’ personal information, after running through a random sample of 80 employees’ emails from the IRS’s small business/self employed division for four weeks in 2015. Extrapolated over a year, that could mean more than 1.1 million emails, covering more than 28 million taxpayers’ information, could have been sent by the division.

“These unencrypted e-mails violated IRM requirements and potentially compromised the security of taxpayer information,” Inspector General J. Russell George said.

• Accounting Today, IRS Employees Used Risky Email Practices
• Washington Free Beacon, IRS Employees Sent Sensitive Taxpayer Info to Their Personal Email Accounts