Probe Finds IRS Workers Misuse Internet

[Guest I'm That Damn Zzzzz]

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story...BCCode=BNNATION

Probe Finds IRS Workers Misuse Internet

 

By MARY DALRYMPLE, Associated Press

Last updated: 1:05 p.m., Sunday, June 22, 2003

WASHINGTON -- Internal Revenue Service employees using thousands of computers accessed prohibited Web sites that included personal e-mail, sexually explicit sites and games. To Treasury investigators, it was a sign that "significant misuse" of the Internet continues after a crackdown a year ago.

 

"Employee abuse of the Internet is still widespread," the investigators reported.

 

The results of the Treasury Department investigation disappointed lawmakers who pushed the IRS to revise its Internet policies and block access to prohibited sites after a study in 2001 showed IRS employees spent more than half their workday on the Internet for personal reasons.

 

"This is a classic case of people getting an inch and taking a mile," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley said Thursday.

 

"Nobody should collect a government salary to sit on their behinds and play around in chat rooms," said Grassley, R-Iowa, who oversees the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service.

 

More than 28 percent of the inappropriate Web browsing was traced to 122 computers, leading investigators to conclude that a small number of employees were chronic abusers.

 

But the investigators found enough evidence that IRS employees accessed prohibited sites to determine that a large number of employees continue to use the Internet inappropriately. The study could not determine the exact number of employees involved.

 

Personal e-mail topped the list among computers showing evidence of banned Web usage. It was followed by games, chat rooms and sexually explicit sites. Also accessed were music, streaming news and video, and instant messaging.

 

The IRS said the study overstated the amount of unauthorized usage because it counted "objects" and a single Web page can contain two to 100 "objects." The study found more than 1 million "objects" had been accessed.

 

Treasury investigators said the unauthorized Web surfing opens the agency to computer viruses, leads to productivity losses and requires the IRS to upgrade its telecommunications structure. It also noted the possibility of sexual harassment lawsuits.

 

The IRS said it has and will continue firing employees who access pornography from IRS computers.

 

"Using IRS systems to gain access to sexually explicit sites is offensive and wrong," said the agency's chief information officer, David A. Mader. "Even one employee using the Internet for this purpose is one too many, and the IRS will not stand for it."

 

Blocking technology designed to bar access to those banned sites was found to be turned off or ineffective during times of peak Internet usage. The IRS responded that there is no blocking technology available to handle the volume of Internet traffic at the IRS.

 

The study was conducted during one week last October, nearly six months after the agency had an extensive campaign to publicize its new Internet rules.

 

I wonder how many people got audited because some IRS employee wanked on a tax return. But half the day...

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

I'd say something, but then I've been spending 90% of my recent workdays on the Internet...