Following the release of this year’s federal information
security report cards, House Government Reform Committee
Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., has questioned the information
security of the Department of Treasury’s website,
according to a committee statement.
Treasury received a D-plus on its report card ‘ as did the
government overall — but Davis wrote Treasury’s
commissioner of public debt to probe the safety of
information collected through treasurydirect.gov where
individuals can purchase government savings bonds.
Typically, online transactions can be processed with credit
card and account numbers, but Treasury instructs users to
submit Social Scurity numbers, driver’s license numbers,
bank routing and account numbers, home addresses, dates
of birth, email addresses and more — and the site’s
privacy and security notice does not guarantee the
information will remain confidential, even though it
relies on secure socket layer protection.
“Expecting individuals to provide their personal banking
account information rather than relying on their credit
card information is troubling to me,” said Davis.
