IRS Makes Good Progress With E-Filing And Virus Protection

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, New York

02 July 2002

The IRS reports that its 2002 tax-filing season was a solid success, setting new records for processing returns and conducting electronic transactions. Nearly 45.8 million taxpayers e-filed, more than 9.1 million of them from their home computers, and about 36.5 million taxpayers had their refunds deposited directly to their bank accounts.

According to a report from TIGTA (the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration), the agency has also made great progress in its computer virus protection program. The IRS has experienced a number of virus attacks since its last review two years ago, but only one of the attacks caused significant damage to computer systems. The report says the program "has matured to the point where responses to virus attacks have been significantly more effective,"

The report attributes much of this success to progress made in installing antivirus software on employees' workstation, as recommended in a prior report. But the report highlights some remaining vulnerability to viruses:

"While IRS' e-mail firewalls effectively monitor and detect viruses sent to IRS employees' official e-mail addresses, the IRS does not scan viruses at its Internet gateways, leaving it vulnerable to viruses introduced through employees' personal e-mail accounts over the Internet," the report said, adding that the IRS also is vulnerable to viruses from certain Internet web sites.

TIGTA recommends that the IRS block employee access to all non-IRS e-mail providers; reinforce its policy that employees not be allowed to access personal e-mail accounts from IRS computers; and block or warn employees when they attempt to access an Internet site that uses certain scripts that could contain viruses. The report says that IRS management agrees with its recommendations and that corrective actions have been taken.

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