Security weaknesses persist at FDIC.

In March, Congress's investigative arm found 26 problems with the way the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. handles its information security. As of the end of May, 21 of those 26 problems have been addressed, but the FDIC still has some data-security holes, the Government Accountability Office said.

A GAO report suggests the FDIC "has made substantial progress" in fixing security weaknesses found in a previous audit, but the agency still needs to protect the integrity and confidentiality of its sensitive data, including financial data, GAO said.

In addition to the five security weaknesses it previously found, GAO said it found new ones relating to email security, physical security of sensitive data held by the FDIC, and configuration management, or how the FDIC identifies and manages the security features for the hardware, software and firmware that handles its data.

"Although these weaknesses do not pose significant risk of misstatement of the corporation's financial statements, they do increase preventable risk to the corporation's financial and sensitive systems and information," the report concluded.

Technology Notebook is compiled by Senior Associate Editor Lori Chordas.