GAO Finds Security Risks At Treasury

Key financial systems run by the Treasury Department's Financial Management Service are vulnerable to security breaches. The service is at significant risk of fraud, unauthorized disclosure and modification of sensitive data and applications, misuse or damage to computer resources, and disruption of critical operations, according to a report made public Monday.

The new vulnerabilities have been discovered since the General Accounting Office's 1999 security audit of the Financial Management Service. The most recent audit also found that the service had "corrected or mitigated" only 35 of the 61 computer-control weaknesses found in 1999.

In 2000, the service collected more than $2 trillion in taxes, duties, and fines and disbursed more than $1.9 trillion in Social Security and veterans' benefits, tax refunds, and federal-employee paychecks.