{"id":193721,"date":"2026-03-04T18:47:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/irs-chief-says-agency-is-engaged-in-a-thorough-cybersecurity-review\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T12:10:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T17:10:58","slug":"irs-chief-says-agency-is-engaged-in-a-thorough-cybersecurity-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/irs-chief-says-agency-is-engaged-in-a-thorough-cybersecurity-review\/","title":{"rendered":"IRS chief says agency is engaged in a \u2018thorough\u2019 cybersecurity review"},"content":{"rendered":"

IRS chief says agency is engaged in a \u2018thorough\u2019 cybersecurity review<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/fedscoop.com\/irs-ceo-frank-bisignano-taxpayer-data-sharing-cybersecurity\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-04 18:47:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: fedscoop.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

The IRS is undergoing a \u201cthorough\u201d cybersecurity review following reports of improperly disclosed taxpayer information, the agency\u2019s CEO told lawmakers Wednesday \u2014 a revelation that some Democrats said skirted the actual privacy issues at hand.<\/p>\n

Appearing before the House Ways & Means Committee, Frank Bisignano said he\u2019s prioritized risk management since taking over as IRS CEO in October. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., ranking member of the panel, had asked the Wall Street veteran and former fintech CEO what the IRS was doing to respond to the \u201cnumerous allegations that confidential taxpayer information has been leaked\u201d since the beginning of the second Trump administration.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a weekly risk management meeting to go through all the issues, inclusive of that [is] cyber,\u201d Bisignano replied. \u201cRisk management is a primary job. It allows for preparedness. A thorough review of all cyber is undergoing right now, and we are also \u2026 having outside reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neal didn\u2019t explicitly state which privacy issues he was referring to, but there have been several involving the IRS and taxpayer data: ongoing litigation involving the tax agency\u2019s data-sharing agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the accessing of PII by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, and the 2019 contractor leaks of the tax returns of President Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos and other wealthy individuals.<\/p>\n

Bisignano, who continues to pull double-duty as head of the Social Security Administration, has touted his private-sector privacy bonafides in previous appearances before Congress. But Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said she was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d that the former Fiserv CEO doesn\u2019t \u201ctake the responsibility to protect Americans\u2019 \u2026 sensitive information seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

DelBene pointed specifically to the IRS-ICE pact and a federal judge\u2019s opinion last week that the tax agency broke federal law \u201capproximately 42,695 times\u201d when it shared taxpayer addresses with the Department of Homeland Security component via an improper matching process.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou told ranking member Neal earlier today that you have implemented a risk management function that includes risk management meetings that discuss cyber policy. Unfortunately, this issue wasn\u2019t caused by cyberattack,\u201d DelBene said. \u201cIt was caused by your department illegally handing over taxpayer information to the Department of Homeland Security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bisignano noted that those events occurred prior to his appointment to the IRS, but it\u2019s still his \u201cresponsibility to get it right.\u201d He declined to comment further, citing pending litigation on the matter, but pointed again to the agency\u2019s embrace of risk management and its goals in \u201cprotecting Americans\u2019 privacy, increasing collections and driving higher service.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier in the hearing, Bisignano told Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., that nobody at the IRS had been dismissed or disciplined over the ICE data disclosures \u2014 which the IRS\u2019s chief risk and control officer admitted in a court filing was done improperly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Modernization, AI and filing season<\/p>\n

Less contentious exchanges during Wednesday\u2019s three-and-a-half-hour hearing centered on the IRS\u2019s modernization and AI efforts under Bisignano. Several Republicans praised the CEO for making progress on digitization efforts and decommissioning legacy systems during his time on the job.<\/p>\n

Bisignano said the agency has seen a 43% uptick in \u201conline usage\u201d \u2014 a statistic he largely attributed to the \u201cfabulous CIO who reports to me, who had been three levels down in this organization and promoted up, and is doing an outstanding job.\u201d He praised agency work on its \u201cWhere\u2019s my refund?\u201d page, claimed the public is getting \u201cquicker refunds and bigger refunds,\u201d and re-framed how he views modernization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not modernizing the IRS. It\u2019s not a word I use,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re transforming the IRS, and we can only do it through advanced technology, and that will increase compliance and increase simplification, and you should expect [the 2027 filing season] to be far better than \u201826, and \u201826 is far better than \u201825 and \u201824 \u2014 by a boat load.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Democrats during the hearing expressed skepticism about how the IRS would be able get through the filing season unscathed in the aftermath of a 19% workforce reduction. The IRS late last year moved about 1,000 staffers from the agency\u2019s Office of the Chief Information Officer to the Office of the Chief Operations Officer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FedScoop reported last month that IT employees with no direct tax experience were involuntarily shifted to customer service and analysis roles for this filing season. The IRS has lost 16% of its IT workforce since Trump took office, per the Treasury Department watchdog, leading to an inventory backlog and project delays.<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously said the IRS would make up for staff cuts with an \u201cAI boom,\u201d and several lawmakers Wednesday questioned how the emerging technology fits into the equation. Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., asked Bisignano how AI will help the IRS go after tax cheats \u2014 \u201ca 100% bipartisan thing\u201d \u2014 without the technology adversely affecting average Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we are heads-down on implementing things that make it easier for our workforce to get to the answers,\u201d Bisignano replied. \u201cI believe AI will be part of increasing the compliance rate, 100%. I believe AI will be part of speeding up everything we\u2019re doing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see a world where an organization cannot use enough AI and be responsible with AI,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd \u2018responsible\u2019 has to be that we have overseers of it, we have [a] governance model for it, and we also have people that are actually reacting to it. It will change the way our workforce works in a better way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency has seen success so far in using AI in customer service functions, Bisignano said later in the hearing, enabling \u201crepresentatives to answer more calls in a day with more timely information\u201d collected quickly and in one place by the technology. The IRS has also deployed AI on the processing of amended returns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the great tools that we have here throughout the whole process,\u201d Bisignano said. \u201cAnd you know, it will affect the compliance positively over time. Here also is the ability to gather information, bring it together, give answers that need to be reviewed by a human, give them categorical opportunities or tell them where to search for. So I\u2019m excited for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWritten by Matt Bracken
\n\t\t\tMatt Bracken is the editor in chief of FedScoop. Before joining Scoop News Group in 2023, Matt worked in various editing, reporting and digital roles at Morning Consult, The Baltimore Sun and the Arizona Daily Star. You can reach him on Signal at MattBracken.33 or email him at matt.bracken@scoopnewsgroup.com.\t\t<\/p>\n

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