The Depression-era agency that protects Americans' bank deposits has such lax security that major losses of money, information and other data are possible, congressional auditors said Friday.

The report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said many weaknesses of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. result from its lack of a fully established security management program.

Good controls established by an effective security management program are essential to ensuring that financial information is protected from misuse, improper disclosure or destruction, the GAO said. As it operates now, however, the FDIC is unable to ensure that such problems do not occur, the report said.

By the Associated Press at Wired.

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