Quick Hits

*** The Los Angeles Times reported on a company called EnQ that directs large volumes of telephone traffic to the overtaxed IRS switchboard and then sells access to calls at the front of the queue to its customer base of tax preparers and accountants. According to the latest annual report from the independent Taxpayer Advocate at IRS, the busiest agency hotline logged 85 million calls during the 2021 filing season with just 3% of callers reaching an IRS representative.

*** The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency along with the Office of Management and Budget released the latest Trusted Internet Connections 3.0 guidance, this time covering the remote user use case. This covers telework as well as personal devices connecting to agency networks.

*** Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced legislation to curtail the practice of federal law enforcement conducting warrantless searches of Americans' electronic devices at border crossings. A companion House bill is being introduced by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.)

"Americans travel with phones and laptops holding nearly our entire lives. Traveling near the border shouldn’t give the government a free pass to throw out our rights and thumb through our phones without any suspicion of wrongdoing," Wyden said in a statement.