IRS Still Losing Laptops

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The Treasury Department's Inspector General for Audit says that the IRS has lost almost 500 laptops in the last three years. That is 164 laptops a year, about 14 per month or one laptop missing from the IRS every other day. So don’t forget to file your taxes by April 15th if you plan on having the laptop your return is on lost or stolen by the 17th!

In a memo authored by the Treasury Department's Inspector General for Audit, Michael R. Phillips, investigators maintain that the IRS is not adequately protecting taxpayer data on laptops and other portable electronic media devices. The report contends that between 2003 and 2006 the IRS had some 490 laptops lost or stolen in 387 individual incidents.
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While that number seems high I wonder how many notebooks they deploy? I mean they have 100k employees or something.
 
How is it possible to loose this many laptops? Your tax dollars at work :rolleyes:
 
I wonder if employees are actually "losing" them or they just borrow them and don't return them.
 
Steve said:
Have you filed yet?


:D
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Don't be stupid I filed my taxes last year. Don't know why someone would wait till the last minute.......Wait


You have to expect a % of the machines to be stolen. Thats why you work on things like encryption(which from the article they still need to work on).
 
Can I claim those lost laptops as a deduction? Some sort of loss write off.
 
Mabye instead of people sending in cash to pay taxes they owe, they should send them something like laptop lojack or something similar to help them recover laptops when they walk away.
 
i wouldn't worry guys... All notbooks and media is encrypted with the product my company sells... I've actually been to the IRS a few times to help implment it. ;)
 
Its nice to know that the data is safe, too bad the doesn't change the fact that they have to replace the laptop. Assuming about $2000 for each laptop at 500 laptops missing that is $1,000,000
 
Exavior said:
Its nice to know that the data is safe, too bad the doesn't change the fact that they have to replace the laptop. Assuming about $2000 for each laptop at 500 laptops missing that is $1,000,000
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That's pretty insignificant considering the IRS' budget exceeds 10 billion dollars.
 
It seems to be an epidemic that government employees are losing laptops here and there. I still remember that a VA laptop and a hard drive that went missing and turned up at a later date (ie recovered).
 
M1ster_R0gers said:
So getting rid of the IRS would keep our data safe and save us 10 billion a year? Great plan, who thought it up?
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I'm sure without the IRS everyone would continue to pay the 2.7 trillion per year it takes to run the U.S. Government. Well, in all fairness, it's only 2.4 trillion the IRS collects, the rest is magic fairy money that they're sure they'll never have to pay back. ;)
 
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