Two incidents are documented
The state review says two abstracts from a January 2024 data run could not be accounted for after moving through county custody between August and November 2024. It separately describes journal notes containing customer names and federal tax information that were improperly imaged on October 13, 2025 and January 15, 2026, then discovered April 1, 2026.
The notes were redacted, but reviewers wrote that permanent deletion from the imaging system was uncertain. Those events are incidents, not merely hypothetical control gaps, and they should not be collapsed into one occurrence.
| Incident | Record |
|---|---|
| Missing abstracts | Two from January 2024 run; loss window August–November 2024 |
| Imaged tax data | Entries made October 2025 and January 2026; found April 2026 |
Seven findings do not mean seven open problems
The report labels federal-tax-information findings F3 through F9—seven findings in all. One, involving a bulk-record tracking log, had already been implemented before the review and required no further action. Six remained for corrective response.
The unresolved controls included visible computer screens, incomplete review of visitor and badge records, access-list monitoring and policy language that did not match practice. Counting seven as open would overstate the remaining work; counting only the two incidents would understate the broader safeguards problem.
The record separates exposure from proven misuse
Federal tax information receives special handling because it can include names, Social Security numbers and income data. The review establishes that records went missing or were placed in an improper system and that preventive controls were inadequate.
It does not say an outsider used the information, identity theft occurred or benefits were wrongly changed. Those more serious consequences would require incident-response evidence not included in the packet.
Method and limits
What’s the Scoop With Broach mapped each numbered finding to the state’s disposition, separated the two incidents from control observations and counted as unresolved only findings that still required action. No personal tax information is reproduced here.
The review is a safeguards assessment, not a criminal investigation. The county’s later remediation and any federal incident determination were not included in the posted record.
Sources and further reading
CDSS Kern County IEVS and federal-tax-information review, September 9, 2026 ↗