Security concerns forced the Inland Revenue to suspend plans to
communicate with millions of taxpayers by e-mail.The department
fears that hackers could intercept e-mails by pretending to be the
Revenue's chairman.
The department has already installed 55,000 computers at a cost
of £200 million, in order to set up its national e-mail service. It
aimed “to provide an e-mail facility for customers to contact the
Revenue office by 2002.” However, it has reportedly revealed in an
internal publication concerns that hackers could intercept e-mails
by pretending to be Sir Nicholas Montagu, the Revenue’s
chairman.
A trial involving 300 employees from 10 offices found that
serious issues regarding the security of confidential information
still need to be addressed before taxpayers can exchange e-mails
with the Revenue, Computer Weekly reported.
A spokesman for the Revenue said:
“This was a trial involving 300 staff. That
pilot has now come to an end. The point of it was to identify and
iron-out any problems. We will now analyse the results of the pilot
before deciding how to proceed.”
A month ago, the Inland Revenue had to suspend an on-line
self-assessment service that allowed taxpayers to file returns.
Users had found that they could access other taxpayers’ data on the
Revenue’s site.
