Invitations to ID theft

Monday, April 9, 2007 | 7:33 a.m.

Th e Internal Revenue Service has lost track of almost 500 laptop computers since 2003, potentially placing the personal data of thousands of Americans at risk of misuse, a federal audit reports.

The 490 computers were either lost or stolen - the IRS isn't sure which - in 387 incidents that were not appropriately reported to the agency's computer security office, a federal inspector general's report shows.

And the computers lacked password protection and encryption software designed to keep data on computers from being accessed. At least 2,000 taxpayers could be at risk, the report says. It could be more.

The audit's findings are only the most recent in a string of computer losses and security breaches that have been reported by agencies throughout the federal government.

A Justice Department audit released earlier this year shows that the FBI reported 160 laptop computers and at least as many firearms as lost or stolen, even after supposedly improving security measures after a 2002 audit revealed similar incidents at the FBI. Last year a Veterans Affairs Department laptop and computer disks containing the personal data of 2.5 million veterans and active-duty military personnel were stolen from the home of an agency employee who failed to immediately report the theft.

Despite the VA's claims of taking steps to improve security, the agency revealed in February that the personal and business data of about 1.8 million doctors and military veterans were contained on a portable hard drive that had, at the time, been missing from an Alabama veterans hospital for at least three weeks.

That any such breaches occur is simply inexcusable. But the fact that the IRS - which collects detailed financial data on every single working American - has lost track of nearly 500 computers that aren't even password protected is beyond belief. This nonchalance toward the privacy and security of millions of people is absolutely unacceptable.