The NCIC, which is maintained by the FBI, is the Nation's most extensive criminal justice information system. The General Accounting Office reviewed NCIC to determine if the system has adequate controls for the prevention of misuse and to obtain any FBI and State assessments of the extent and nature of NCIC misuse and examples of such misuse. Officials of the FBI and the 54 State agencies that oversee local user agencies were interviewed; user agencies in three States were visited, and relevant documentation was reviewed. The assessment found that NCIC is vulnerable to misuse from individuals with authorized access or "insiders" because of the system's inherent risk and the control limitations in some State criminal justice information systems through which users access NCIC. The study also found that the FBI and States do not systematically assess the extent and nature of NCIC misuse; however, examples of such misuse indicate that NCIC has been misused both intentionally (disclosing information to private investigators in exchange for money) and unintentionally (conducting background investigations on applicants for noncriminal justice employment). The individuals who have misused NCIC generally have not been criminally prosecuted, in part because of the lack of directly applicable Federal and State statutes. The General Accounting Office recommends that Congress enact legislation with strong criminal sanctions for misuse of NCIC and that NCIC's security policy requirements be reviewed. Appended examples of NCIC misuse