Cyber Attacks: Securing Agencies’ICT Systems
Cyber crime is an international problem, and it is estimated that in 2012, 5.4 million Australians fell victim to such crimes, with an estimated cost to the economy of $1.65 billion ... . In the government sector, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD)3 has estimated that between January and December 2012, there were over 1790 security incidents against Australian Government agencies. Of these, 685 ... were considered serious enough to warrant a Cyber Security Operations Centre response. <br/> The protection of Australian Government systems and information from unauthorised access and use is a key ... ... Cyber-security strategy needs consistent implementation and periodic reviews ... application, 3. patching operating systems, 4. minimising administrative privileges. Analysis by the ANAO helps to fill gaps and to direct next steps. ... List of 35 mitigation controls against cyber intrusions are a basic tool of information security strategy of the Australian Government. Top four are: 1. application whitelisting, 2. patching
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Management and implementation of 1BestariNet
1BestariNet Service Project (1BestariNet) is an initiative undertaken by the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MOE) to replace and enhance ICT connectivity in schools. It is an enhancement ... to the SchoolNet service which terminated on 31 December 2010 with emphasis on end-to-end solutions (E2E) network services together with Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Under this project, 10,000 primary ... and secondary public schools in Malaysia are equipped with high-speed 4G Internet access and a virtual learning platform, providing high-speed internet connectivity and access to a world-class Integrated Learning ... ... To answer big risks in IT systems development you need all levels of organisation ... Audit of 1BestariNet is presented by the Malaysian National Audit Department together with other IT projects reviewed. A result is this concise and instructive list of lessons learnt and failures ... to be avoided. To maximize performance and minimize vendor lock-in you need a lot of concerted effort by top and line management, as well as users ready to work with new tools.
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Submission of data to national databases in municipalities, towns and cities
The National Audit Office analysed the activities of the database managers following a ruling made by the Supreme Court in 2010, which stated that the public functions assigned to local authorities ... must be clearly financed from the state budget. It was also assessed whether the measures taken by database managers have been sufficient to guarantee that local authorities submit all required data ... and that these data are correct. ... ... Funds as basic factor of data processing ... The NAO of Estonia audited the activities of state agencies in the management of the database selected for the audit, to which local authorities are obliged to submit data. It was found that in most ... cases the state does not compensate the costs of data submission for local governments.
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Audit to the Social Security Systems of Collection of Contributions and Quotes and Relationship with Banking and other Entities Engaged in Collection Initiatives
The audit aims to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes implemented in respect of the processing schemes of contributions/quotas, whose Wages Statements (WS) entered ... into the system in the first quarter of 2007, test the reliability, stability and confidence level of the application systems developed and the respective values processed in the entire collection circuit ... and respective accounting, and also check compliance with the contracts celebrated with banking entities. ... ... Application level of Social Security IS analyzed ... Processes maturity and automation of controls appeared to be main problems in the system which reliability, stability and confidence level were tested.
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Management of Information Resources of the Ministry of Agriculture
The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania has managed 32 information systems and registers. Of these, 24 ones are managed, developed and upgraded by a state enterprise subordinate ... to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agricultural Information and Rural Business Centre. The annual amount allocated by the Ministry for the maintenance of the Centre totals LTL 17.5 million on average ... . The objective of the audit was to assess the general and development controls of the information resources of the Ministry of Agriculture. The audit was conducted at the Ministry of Agriculture and the state ... ... Without appropiate IT management  it is hard to achieve reliable, consistent and secure systems for agriculture ... Since 1996 the Ministry has been using information systems of varying complexity for collecting and processing data, including personal data. The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania ... has managed 32 information systems and registers. SAI of Lithuania revealed that systems were not well mantained what affected use of funds devoted to the systemsand also their legality and security.
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