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Congressional Sledgehammer Drops On DHS Cyber Insecurity

Client Alert | 1 min read | 09.27.07

Following a series of tough investigations and oversight hearings on cybersecurity in April and June with more to come, the House Homeland Security Committee dropped the hammer on DHS and its contractors in a letter on September 21, 2007, finding that cyber attacks on federal and contractor IT systems "have resulted in the loss of massive amounts of critical information," characterizing DHS and contractor responses as "misleading" and subject to potential criminal penalties under 18 U.S.C. 1001, and demanding a DHS IG investigation -- and referral for "criminal investigation" if appropriate. With contractors operating over 1,100 federal IT systems subject to the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), future security breaches virtually assure Congressional investigations, as the Homeland Security Committee promised: "The Committee will continue to investigate security breaches, particularly those occurring among commercial contractors."

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 10.10.25

New Post Appeals Mediation Pilot Program

On October 1, 2025, the IRS Independent Office of Appeals launched a two-year pilot program to make Post Appeals Mediation (PAM) more attractive and accessible to taxpayers. See IRS Announcement 2025-10. The new PAM pilot program offers taxpayers the opportunity to be assigned to a new Appeals team, which is otherwise unconnected to the underlying case, who will represent the original Appeals team in the mediation session. The assignment of the new Appeals team does not begin a new appeals process but rather is intended to help facilitate an expedited and impartial look at the underlying case with the goal of further exploring all potential paths to resolution prior to litigation....