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Audit Reports

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Jul
19
2016
Report Number:
IT-AR-16-009
Report Type:
Audit Reports
Category: Technology

Nationwide Information Technology Hardware Inventory

Background

Information Technology (IT) hardware asset management is tracking and managing the physical components of computers and computer networks. The objective of hardware asset management is to provide accountability and inventory visibility for computer hardware.

Organizations should actively manage all hardware devices connected to the network so they can detect unauthorized devices and allow only authorized devices to gain access. According to the SysAdmin, Audit, Networking, and Security Institute, “Inventory of Authorized and Unauthorized Devices” ranked first on the list of the 20 most critical IT security controls. This ranking highlights that managing hardware assets is essential to effectively responding to security events.

The U.S. Postal Service’s network supports and maintains over 145,000 desktop computers, 23,000 notebook computers, 81,000 printers, and 310,000 hand-held scanners. The Postal Service IT team also supports 45,700 point-of-sale terminals and 2,850 self-service retail kiosks nationwide. The Postal Service organizational units in physical possession of IT asset hardware are responsible for those assets and record keeping relating to them.

In March 2015, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General published a report titled Hardware Inventory Management – Greater Boston District (Report Number IT-AR-15-004). The report identified significant security control weaknesses in how hardware assets were managed and safeguarded. We conducted this nationwide audit to determine if the Postal Service had nationwide issues similar to the issues identified in the Greater Boston district.

The objective of the current audit was to determine if the Postal Service had an accurate physical inventory of computer hardware assets connected to the IT network.

What the OIG Found

Overall, the Postal Service has an accurate inventory of hardware assets connected to the IT network (56.x.x.x network) at the 15 facilities we visited in five of the seven areas. We verified the physical location of 674 of the 677 (99 percent) hardware assets.

What the OIG Recommended

The Postal Service had an accurate inventory of hardware assets connected to the IT network at the 15 facilities we visited; therefore, we are not making any recommendations.