IRS: More funding needed to combat cyber threats

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) needs more funding to combat increasing cybersecurity risks, the agency said Wednesday.  

“The combined pressures of reduced resources, new demands, and cyber threats have undermined our ability to deliver foundational taxpayer service and enforcement programs,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen wrote in a letter to Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

The IRS has often pointed to budget constraints as a chief reason it struggles to keep up with identity thieves.

Earlier this year, the agency announced that hackers had accessed the old tax returns of more than 300,000 individuals, using the records to claim about $39 million in fake returns and sparking outrage among lawmakers.

In its 2016 budget request, the Obama administration has asked for $242 million in cybersecurity funding for the IRS — a 72-percent boost only distantly rivaled by a 23-percent requested increase to the Department of Health and Human Services’ information security funding.

According to updated documents released by the White House in August, the IRS would take “especially aggressive steps to fight identity theft and Stolen Identity Refund fraud” with the new money.

Koskinen’s letter was a response to a September missive from Wyden, which expressed support for the president’s budget.

“Congress ought to increase resources to the IRS if it expects the agency to bring its antiquated computer systems into the 21st century to prevent these criminal attacks going forward,” Wyden wrote, calling the budget request “a sensible increase.”

Koskinen compared the agency’s cybersecurity spending to the private sector, where spending has grown in double-digit increments in recent years.

“Our IT budget has decreased in recent years, despite the fact we maintain sensitive data on hundreds of millions of American taxpayers,” Koskinen wrote.