The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has released Employees Continue to Be Susceptible to Social Engineering Attempts That Could Be Used by Hackers (2007-20-107), reporting that its inspectors were able to get IRS employees to improperly disclose user names and passwords over 61% of the time. The Senate Finance Committee issued a press release, criticizing the finding that "60,000 of the IRS’s 100,000 employees and contractors are susceptible to computer hackers, putting untold amounts of personal taxpayer information at risk for unauthorized disclosure, theft and fraud." Press and blogosphere coverage:

• Associated Press:  Inspector General Finds Lax Computer Security by IRS Employees, by Jim Abrams
• ComputerWorld:  Study: IRS Security Vulnerable to Social Engineering; Hey, Baby, I’m the Taxman — and I Can Be Hacked by Random Phone Callers