Report to the Public AccountsCommittee on mitigation of cyber attacks
This report concerns the action taken by Danish government bodies to prevent cyber attacks. Behaving sensibly in cyberspace to avoid attacks is important, but should be supplemented by technical ... security controls that can increase security and mitigate cyber attacks. International studies have concluded that three central security controls can prevent the majority of the currently known types ... of attacks: - technical restriction of download of programmes; - limited use of local administrators; - systematic software updates. Rigsrevisionen has assessed whether the government bodies in the study ... Three basic security measures are often neglected ... Government agencies are open for cyber attacks because they often forget to respect three basic IT security measures. The three measures are: 1. technical restriction on programs downloading; 2 ... . limited use of local administrators rights; 3. systematic software updates.
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The protection of IT systems and health data in three Danish regions
Security to be improved in IT systems with health data It is Rigsrevisionen’s assessment that the three regions are not protecting the access to IT systems and health data in a satisfactory manner. As a consequence, unauthorised persons might gain access to sensitive and confidential personal data, which could affect there liability and availability of important health data used in the treatment of hospital patients. Based on the results of the study and the current threat scenario, Rigsrevisionen finds that basic security measures against cyber attacks and protection of access to IT systems and health data should be a top priority for Denmark’s five regions. Basic security measures in combination with management and control of user privileges can reduce the risk of compromising the regions’ IT systems and data considerably.
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Extract from the report to the Public Accounts Committee on the access to IT systems that support the provision of essential services to the Danish society
The report is focused on the significant risk that is associated with inadequate management and control of domain administrator privileges, which makes it possible for unauthorized persons to obtain ... access to the IT systems and data of the institutions. Rigsrevisionen has not examined for what specific purposes unauthorized access to the institutions’ systems and data can be used. ... ... Inadequate management and control of domain administrator privileges ... The Danish report concerns the measures - taken by six government institutions of various branches of State activities - to protect IT systems and data that support the provision of essential ... services to the Danish society from unauthorized access, obtained on the basis of domain administrator privileges.
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Staff scheduling in government institutions
Scheduling irregular hours work Danish Rigsrevisionen shows in their study problems with staff scheduling in government institutions where employees are required to work irregular hours. Optimized staff scheduling contributed to reducing payroll costs. On the other hand, problems with rearrangement of work, recording working hours, optimisation of staffing levels and analysis of overtime triggers - add up to high costs of workforce. IT is not always used as ally either.
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Relocation of government jobs
Difficult experience of relocation of jobs The Danish government decided to move almost 4 thousand government jobs away from the metropolitan area. The purpose of the relocation was to attain a better balance and development across Denmark and ensure that government institutions were located close to the citizens and businesses. Study of the SAI Denmark shows that overall, the departments have implemented the whole operation in an appropriate manner. At the same time, however, the relocation had negative consequences for the institutions’ production which has also affected citizens and businesses.
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The protection of research data at the Danish universities
The protection of research data at the Danish universities It is Rigsrevisionen’s assessment that the five largest universities are not adequately protecting their research data against unknown IT equipment. As a result, foreign actors may relatively easy gain unauthorized access to the universities’ research data.This is not considered satisfactory by Rigsrevisionen. The study shows that the five largest universities have defined guidelines for researchers’ use of software and hardware centrally, but that they have failed to centralise efforts to maintain a satisfactory level of security for research data. This is due mainly to the fact that, at some universities, researchers are allowed to bring their own devices,and at all the universities, researchers are allowed to have local administrator privileges, which gives them access to install software. Additionally, all five universities know of incidents where unknown hardware has been connected to their network.
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Report on the government’s processing of confidential data on persons and companies
Rigsrevisionen has examined how eight government institutions process confidential data on persons and companies in 11 selected IT systems. The report is based on IT audits carried out in connection ... with the annual audit in the spring 2014. The purpose of the audit was to assess whether confidential data on persons and companies are adequately protected by the government institutions. ... ... Inadequate protection of confidential data ... If a government institution does not protect confidential data to the extent necessary, the risk that third parties get unauthorized access to the data is very high. In opinion of the Danish SAI ... , inadequate protection of confidential data may also erode the citizens’ and companies’ confidence in government data security. That may eventually become a barrier for the continued efforts to implement ... e-government and make government administration more efficient.
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