While the IRS is complying with GSA requirements to recycle or donate used IT hardware, several areas for improvement remain, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has said.
It said the IRS needs to improve documentation to ensure compliance with media sanitization guidelines, report any IT equipment that cannot be located to the Computer Security Incident Response Center as required, and improve documentation of disposal actions.
The IRS disposed of 63,031 desktop computers and 44,734 laptops between 2009 and 2012 through a combination of recycling and donating to schools, but it does not effectively track which equipment is recycled or donated, making it difficult to measure compliance with GSA requirements, TIGTA said.
The IRS agreed with several recommendations to improve documentation of the removal of all data from IT equipment before it is donated and the equipment’s final destination, and the reporting of lost or stolen equipment.
