The IRS is experimenting with allowing employees access to work e-mail and other services on their personal smartphones but it needs to develop a better cost benefit analysis and stronger security measures, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has said.
It said that under the bring your own device, or BYOD, program, the IRS purchased 1,000 mobile device management software licenses in June 2012 for use by employees with personally owned iPhones, iPads, and Android smartphones.
However, the agency overestimated interest in participating as well as the number of smartphone users by about 5,000 and just 519 of the licenses were in use last May – mostly for iPhones and iPads.
Further, while the IRS compared the estimated cost of BYOD to the cost of the IRS’s existing mobility programs prior to starting the BYOD pilot project, it has not updated the cost-benefit analysis, TIGTA said.
Italso expressed concern that the IRS allows BYOD devices access to resources on the IRS network in addition to e-mail access, and it recommended allowing access to email only at this time. It also said allowing access for Android devices should be postponed.
The IRS generally agreed but only if the program is expanded, while TIGTA maintained that additional controls need to be implement now for the existing pilot.
