Audit Shoe On Other Foot

Do you know where your computer is? Then you're better off than the IRS. The agency is trying to account for 2,300 notebooks and other small computers it's lost track of over the past three years.

A recent Treasury Department audit couldn't determine whether the computers were lost, stolen, or not properly identified. That's ironic, because the IRS demands scrupulous taxpayer accountability. The agency had 163,000 computers as of September. It claims most of the missing units were old and would need to be replaced anyway. And it says it's fairly sure none could give hackers a way into the IRS network.