April 05, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- The Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) may not be doing a very good job of encrypting data on its laptops, but
it does have a way to recover its lost equipment.
In fact, thieves looking to steal from the Department of the Treasury may
find themselves behind bars, thanks to tracking software used by the IRS to
contact investigators whenever a laptop is stolen.
Nearly 500 IRS laptops went missing in a three year period between 2003
and 2006, according to the agency that oversees the IRS, called the Treasury
Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).
TIGTA recently published a memo illustrating how the agency could do a
better job at protecting taxpayers' data. For example, TIGTA found that nearly
half of the 100 IRS laptop computers that it tested had unencrypted sensitive
data, relating to both IRS employees and taxpayers.
The report's conclusion? Well, TIGTA left little room for guesswork there,
entitling its memo: "The Internal Revenue Service Is Not Adequately Protecting
Taxpayer Data on Laptop Computers."
However, in an earlier TIGTA report presented to Congress late last year,
the oversight agency listed a few of the high-tech tricks the IRS uses for
security.
The agency has combined video technology with specialized software to keep
track of some PCs, the report says.
The IRS uses video-over-Internet technology to remotely operate surveillance
cameras on its premises, and it also has special software that lets IRS PCs
notify government agencies if the computer goes missing. The software can also
provide investigators with the machine's IP address once it pops back up on the
Internet. With the IP address in hand, Treasury Department investigators have
been able to identify criminal suspects and recover stolen equipment, the
report states.
Although PC thefts have been making front page news for more than a year
now, observers say these type of laptop recovery systems are just starting to
get the government's attention. "I think this is below a lot of people's
radar," said Richard Smith, an Internet security consultant with Boston
Software Forensics.
One company that sells this type of PC recovery service, Vancouver's Absolute
Software Corp., says that it has been stepping up dialogue with the U.S federal
government over the past year and a half.
To date, the company counts NASA (National Aeronautics and Space
Administration) and the U.S. General Services Administration among its
customers.
Absolute's software, which is installed in the firmware and the PC's hard
drive, is extremely difficult to remove. It can not only report the location of
a stolen computer, but it can also be used to wipe data from a machine after
it's been stolen, said John Livingston, the company's chairman and CEO.
Absolute is one of about a half-dozen companies, including CyberAngel
Security Solutions Inc. and Brigadoon Software Inc., that sell this type of PC
recovery product. And while Livingston admits that the market for these
services is "still in the early part of the adoption curve," he says
that Absolute has now signed up about 1 million subscribers. "We've gotten
thousands of stolen computers back. We do it every day," he said.
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