The IRS has not consistently maintained the security settings it established and deployed under a common operating environment (COE), resulting in a high risk of exploitation for some of its computers, according to the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration.

The IRS has adopted a common operating environment for security configurations on all of its workstations. The common environment lets IRS control security configuration settings and software on workstations by using one master COE template, which the IRS installs on its computers. The IRS has installed the master COE image on 95 percent of its computers, TIGTA said in its report released today.

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