The IRS’s Computer Security Incident Response Center, or CSIRC, is doing an adequate job of stopping cyberattacks, according to an audit by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration.
“In general, the CSIRC prevented, detected, reported and responded to cybersecurity incidents,” the audit concluded. For example, out of a sample 100 incidents from a total of 368 incidents in FY 2015 and 2016, the CSIRC “properly identified and documented the type, nature and scope of all 100 incidents with information such as the systems and applications affected, the source of the incident, and the specific kind of lost equipment.”
Nonetheless, the IG audit also found that “not all incidents were properly reported, some supporting incident documentation was insufficient, incident costs were not captured, and reporting procedures were inconsistently applied.”
Auditors recommended that employees and contractors be properly trained in cybersecurity, and that contractors without proper security training be denied access to IRS systems.
