Management of IT security in systems outsourced to external suppliers
Security to be improved in IT processes outsourced to external suppliers When IT processes are outsourced to external suppliers, the authorities no longer have direct control of the IT security, but remain responsible for managing the security of the IT. Authorities that fail to manage IT security actively based on risk assessments, and omit to monitor the implementation of these requirements, will not be able to determine if the level of IT security in the outsourced systems safeguards their systems and data. This is how the conclusion of the Rigsrevisionen starts. The Danish auditors noticed improvement in the audited entities, but they add that tha majority of the auditees: can refine their requirements for and follow-up on access control and logging practices
Full description

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.
Full description

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.
Full description

Report to on the user-friendliness and user involvement in the development of e-government services in Denmark
The e-government user-friendliness requirements are divided into five overall categories: language, design and flow, data and functionality, and accessibility. 1) The objective of the study ... is to provide an assessment of the authorities’ efforts to ensure that e-government services are user-friendly. The report answers the following questions: - Have the authorities involved the users ... in the development of the e-government services? - Have the authorities conducted post-launch assessments of the user-friendliness of the e-government services, and do the contracts with the suppliers of the solutions ... ... User-friendliness of public services should be consistenty required and tested ... The Danish Rigsrevisionen is of the opinion that the user-friendliness of the services can be improved if the authorities meet all the requirements of the Danish Agency for Digitisation concerning ... the matter. The audit covered user-friendliness related problems in case of five systems, before and after the launch. The systems take-up was also considered, as well as communicating with citizens who ... are unable to use digital services.
Full description

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.
Full description

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.
Full description