**GAO-09-195**                      Published: Jan 30, 2009. Publicly Released: Jan 30, 2009.                  

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## Highlights

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau within the Department of the Treasury, relies extensively on its own computer systems, as well as those at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Treasury Communications System (TCS), to administer the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and fulfill its mission of safeguarding the U.S. financial system from financial crimes. Effective information security controls over these systems are essential to ensuring that BSA data, which contains sensitive financial information used by law enforcement agencies to prosecute financial crime, is protected from inappropriate or deliberate misuse, improper disclosure, or destruction. GAO evaluated whether security controls that effectively protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the information and systems that support FinCEN's mission have been implemented. To do this, GAO examined security policies and controls for systems at three organizations.

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## Recommendations for Executive Action

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## Topics

Information Security

Access controlAgency missionsClassified informationComputer networksComputer securityConfidential communicationsConfidential informationControlled accessData encryptionData integrityFinancial institutionsFinancial recordsFinancial statementsInformation accessInformation classificationInformation disclosureInformation securityInformation security managementInformation security regulationsInformation systemsInternal controlsLaw enforcementMission critical informationUnauthorized access