Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
IRS Fails to Patch Systems – An Open Invitation to Hackers
November 5, 2012
Last Thursday, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released a September 25th report which warns that thousands of IRS computers could be vulnerable to hackers because software isn't being timely patched.
Thanks to our friend Alan Goldberg for sending that news item along. It had an ironic undertone because we lectured on Friday at the Virginia Bar Association's Health Care Practitioners Roundtable where we cautioned the audience that failure to patch is one of the primary culprits for data breaches.
Still, it is pretty amazing that the IRS has not got a grip on patch management. Even more alarming, the report stated that the IRS has not yet completed an accurate inventory of its IT equipment so it can't figure out whether all systems have been patched. That is utterly incomprehensible.
Pink slips are in order for failure to comply with basic information security procedures. As for my tax returns and yours, they've just had a bulls-eye painted on them.
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