United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Accounting and Information Management Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1999-10-04 monographic deposited born digital 24 p. GA 1.13:AIMD-00-4 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-00-4 P0b002ee1803a301c f:ai00004 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-AIMD-00-4 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-AIMD-00-4 AIMD-00-4 Computer security Financial statement audits Computer software verification and validation Financial management systems Federal agency accounting systems Confidential communication Internal controls Letter Report AIMD Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the general and application computer controls over key financial systems maintained and operated by the Financial Management Service (FMS), focusing on the results of GAO's fiscal year (FY) 1998 tests of the effectiveness of general and application controls that support key FMS automated financial systems and GAO's follow up on the status of FMS' corrective actions to address weaknesses identified in its FY 1997 audit.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) the pervasive weaknesses GAO identified in FMS' computer controls at each of its data centers during GAO's FY 1998 audit renders FMS' overall security control environment ineffective in identifying, deterring, and responding to computer control weaknesses in a timely manner; (2) GAO's follow up on the status of FMS' corrective actions to address weaknesses identified in GAO's FY 1997 audit found that FMS had only corrected or mitigated the risks associated with 24 of 72 computer control weaknesses discussed in GAO's "Limited Official Use" report issued on July 31, 1998; (3) during the FY 1998 audit, GAO found new general computer control weaknesses in entitywide security planning and management, access controls, system software, and application software development and change controls; (4) GAO also identified weaknesses in the authorization controls over all six of the key FMS financial applications GAO reviewed; (5) in addition, GAO identified an accuracy control weakness over one of the six key FMS financial applications and a completeness control weakness over another one of the six key FMS financial applications; (6) because of the weaknesses in computer controls that GAO identified, including the lack of an effective entitywide security planning and management program, billions of dollars of payments and collections are at significant risk of loss or fraud, vast amounts of sensitive data are at risk of inappropriate disclosure, and critical computer-based operations are vulnerable to serious disruptions; and (7) accordingly, as reported for FY 1997, GAO continues to consider FMS' computer control problems a material weakness. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-00-4/html/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-00-4.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-00-4/pdf/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-00-4.pdf GAO/AIMD-00-4 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-00-4 Letter Report GAO/AIMD-00-4; Financial Management Service: Significant Weaknesses in; Computer security Financial statement audits Computer software verification and validation Financial management systems Federal agency accounting systems Confidential communication Internal controls