Procedures To Safeguard Social Security Beneficiary Records Can Still Be Improved

Gao ID: HRD-81-157 September 30, 1981

In June 1978, GAO issued a report which identified security weaknesses in the protection of beneficiary records maintained in field offices under the stewardship of the Social Security Administration (SSA). GAO made nine recommendations directed toward correcting the weaknesses, and SSA began action to correct the deficiencies. Subsequently, GAO was requested to determine what actions had been taken to implement the recommendations.

As of September 1981, two of the recommendations had been implemented while the other seven were in various stages of implementation. After GAO pointed out the security weaknesses, SSA established a systems security staff which would have had the authority to implement a strong security program for maintaining beneficiary records. However, in January 1979, the systems security staff was returned to the position of having to obtain the cooperation of several SSA operating components to develop and implement an adequate security program which would protect beneficiary records.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: No director on record Team: No team on record Phone: No phone on record


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.