CastleCops® - GAO report critical of federal banks' security

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, D.C., Thursday issued an information security report critical of the Federal Reserve banks’ computer systems and networks that are used in selling Treasury notes at auctions.

In its report addressed to Federal Reserve System chairman Ben Bernanke, the GAO said the dozen Federal Reserve banks that serve as fiscal agents for the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt had failed to implement adequate security controls to support networks used in Treasury actions. The GAO, the federal government’s watchdog agency, said an in-depth review of these systems done between March and May of this year revealed several shortcomings the Fed should address, in the areas of user authentication, authorized access, and protection of sensitive data through encryption.

“Without proper safeguards, the speed and accessibility that create the enormous benefits of the computer age may allow individuals and groups with malicious intent to gain unauthorized access to systems and use the access to obtain sensitive information, commit fraud, disrupt operations, or launch attacks against other sites,” the GAO warned in its report entitled “Federal Reserve Needs to Address Treasury Auction Systems.”

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