IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Das Bundesministerium des Inneren (BMI) und Infineon wollen künftig eng im Bereich der IT-Sicherheit zusammenarbeiten. Bundesinnenminister Otto Schily und Dr. Ulrich Schumacher, Vorstandsvorsitzender von Infineon, unterschrieben jetzt in München das "Memorandum of Understanding" für eine weitreichende Sicherheitskooperation.

Among the new measures, which fall under the Infocomm Security Masterplan 2 (MP2), a five-year road map launched in 2008, is the introduction of business analytics tools to enable officials to spot security threats earlier.

Speaking at a domestic infocomm security seminar, Tan stressed that cyber attacks pose a potential threat to the island state as the development of the country depends heavily on the cyber networks and infocomm technology.

The Infocomm Security Masterplan will augment current capabilities and develop new capabilities in three key areas - assuring information protection and risk mitigation, situational awareness and contingency planning and in the development of human and intellectual capital, which includes enhancing cyber security awareness among Internet users, the development of professional skills and the promotion of research & development in infocomm security.

While an ever increasing number of people here are plugging into broadband connections, concerns over security breaches have held back these so-called government e-services.

Emerging technologies such as Web 2.0 and cloud computing, plus new ways of transacting and accessing information through new media, have bolstered the importance of online security for public sector institutions.

The public sector typically holds the personal data of its citizens, as well as other sensitive national information.

The world is becoming ever more connected with each passing day.

While smart devices within smart homes are now an accepted and ingrained part of society, the idea of smart cities remains a somewhat maverick concept, full of potential pitfalls which require extensive contingency plans – which are inevitable, and vital. Spend on smart cities currently stands around £81 billion, and in the not-so-distant-future we will live in cities and societies that are totally connected to the internet, with entire infrastructures dependent on remaining connected.

Tools like smart streetlights help cities understand what's going on at the ground level, but as solutions advance, officials say they should be easy to stand up and keep public privacy top of mind.

Ease of deployment may be one area where the urban tech landscape is evolving as cities look to leverage streetlights and even electric transformers to give them deeper insights into what’s happening on the ground. These technology developments come as public leaders also work to ensure individual privacy is not trampled on the road to a smart city.

“Security on mobile phones is a big issue in Korea,” said Prof Oh. “We need a different kind of technology to protect the information stored on it. As much money that goes into R&D to build a better mobile environment for government services should go into making that environment secure.”

As Korea grows, so has its numbers of visitors. More than 77 million Foreigners visited Korea in 2010 alone, and as of August 2011, 1.4 million have decided to make their residence in Korea. There has been a corresponding increase in illegal immigrants. To keep better track of this, the Ministry of Justice has implemented various policies such as fingerprinting and an Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS). To learn more about the e- government system of Korean Immigration Service, Korea IT Times had an interview with Lee Chang-se, Commissioner of Korea Immigration Service at the Ministry of Justice. With his 20 years of experience as a prosecutor in the Seoul Northern District Prosecutor's Office, the Commissioner showed his zeal to bring a new perspective to the policy making process at the Korean Immigration Service. "What we prioritize in policy making is the harmony between international citizens and our citizens. Even if a policy itself is perfect for immigrants, it can have a negative influence to our own citizens. We consider a lot to lessen any possible side effects of a new policy," he said. Their upcoming fingerprint and facial Identification System is expected to slow down the international citizens' immigration process, but the Korean Immigration Service at the Ministry of Justice is searching for way to overcome this in the near future with the best IT technology. "Although the words security and fast immigration processing sounds conflicting, it is our challenge to provide both to our visitors and citizens," the Commissioner said.

“Financial crimes in our local banks are getting serious although I can’t quantify,” PCCB director-general Edward Hoseah said. “Indeed e-crimes have made the fighting of financial crimes more difficult, demanding high level technical skills and sophisticated equipment and software to tackle.”

But he told a forum on challenges in the auditing of public organisations in Dar es Salaam on Friday that the bureau was cooperating with other financial and security organs to curb the problem.

A memorandum of cooperation (MoC) was signed last week in an attempt to tackle Internet-borne malicious threats and provide a safer online environment for Thai citizens

Permanent Secretary of ICT Ministry Jeerawan Boonperm said the MoC was signed to create a system that does not only protect online users but also analyze threats and identify their whereabouts.

In the "Cyber Europe 2010" exercise, crisis managers from all Member States taking part in the simulation had to cooperate between each other to avoid a simulated total network crash. The event, which was organised by EU Member States with support from the European Network Security Agency (ENISA) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), aimed at testing participants' responses to a simulated attack from hackers on critical online services

A roundtable of government agencies, chaired by the Chief Information Officers Foundation Inc, was held on October 26th (2010) to discuss the creation of a Shared CyberSecurity Services Portal (SOC).

The National Bureau of Investigation, National Security Council and the Philippine National Police are the agencies in contention to lead the project, which will be funded by the Philippines’ E-Government Fund.

In April and May 2007 servers based in Russia attacked Estonian Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, apparently in response to an Estonian government decision to relocate a Soviet-era war memorial in Tallinn.

The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., updates the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and establishes a National Office for Cyberspace in the Executive Office of the President.

The amendment was attached to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, which passed the House Friday by a 229-186 vote.

Commenting on the programme, the Secretary General of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, Mohammed Ahmed Al-Bawardi, said the launch of the programme was part of the Abu Dhabi government's efforts to achieve its vision of becoming one of the best five governments in the world through continuous improvement of quality and competent government services and to move from the conventional to eGovernment.

The forum aims to address the main challenges facing e-governments across this region, and highlight the ideal solutions to overcome these challenges. According to Rasmussen, “In the GCC, CA solutions are supporting government departments with their national information technology plans, including e-government initiatives, as they strive to ease the life of the community and businesses, and realign IT to support department goals - all while helping ensure national security.”

"There are no government strategies for IT securities in the Middle East," said Anas Chibib, a managing director of Berlin-based Advanced German Technologies (AGT) at GITEX, the region's largest annual hi-tech trade show taking place this week at the Dubai International Exhibition Center.