Managing the risk of legacy ICT to public service delivery
The cross-government report describes the case studies from four public services (state pension, Value Added Tax collection, prescription payment and consumer credit licensing services) selected ... to illustrate the range of approaches that small and large government bodies are taking to address the issues arising from legacy ICT (defined as "systems and applications that have been operationally embedded ... within a business function but superseded by newer and more effective technologies or changed business needs"). ... Possible approaches to the problem of 'legacy ICT' ... UK’s government experience in managing the risks connected to legacy ICT provides valuable insight for others facing the same problem and are considering transforming their services.
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Software management assessment in local governments and local government educational institutions
Objective of the audit was to verify compliance of software recording and management with regulatory enactments, as well as to assess the effectiveness of software management in local governments ... and local government educational institutions. ... ... Software management assessment in local governments and local government educational institutions ... Manage your software! Local governments and local government education institution neglect basic safety procedures, use outdated or illegal kinds of software, use two and more different software ... for the same function.
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Risks of e-Governance Strategy Dominated by Outsourcing
Audit of IT service in Ministry of Public Assets gave an opportunity to analize risks related to outsourcing dominated e-Governance strategy. Important findings were identified in preparation ... and testing stages, stemming from poor Business Case. ... ... IT outsourcing risks ... Presentation based on audit of IT services in Polish Ministry of Public Assets. Outsourcing risks were classified and next identified at Business Case, preparation and teststing stages.
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Management of Information Resources of the Ministry of the Interior
of the audit was to assess the management of information resources in the Ministry of the Interior. We assessed how the Ministry ensures planning and organisation, monitoring, assessment and coordination ... Many activities of the Ministry of the Interior require the use of information resources that are of great significance to the entire State, such as the state and departmental registers, and public ... information systems. Whereas the Ministry has failed to implement some of the public audit recommendations of 2007 and 2010,6 we analysed, whether there have been any positive changes in the field of IT ... ... Process maturity examination can help in IT audit ... Main risk areas in case of this audit were strategic and organisational - Ministry’s weak ownership of IT resources, insufficient audit and internal control function. SAI Lithuania auditors found ... also flaws in change management and security processes. But the finding, which gave them the key to the root cause of problems, was connected with maturity assessment of the auditee's IT processes.
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Management and protection of assets in the field of the information-communication technologies at the ME SR
control of backup's functionality), restoring and security, possibility of unauthorised persons to access the IS and data, which increases the risk of information leakage and security risk, and inadequate ... The Supreme Audit office of the Slovak Republic (SAO SR) has conducted the audit at the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic (ME SR) for the audit period 2011 and 2012 to examine ... the compliance with the generally binding legal regulations and the general statues in the field of the information-communication technologies (ICT) and the information systems of the public administration (ISPA ... ... Started from contracting, ended in security ... and ended in exposing the organization to high security risks. ... The perceptive and filled with findings audit - conducted by the Slovak SAI - discovered the list of issues which started in careless contracting procedures, failure to update the development concept
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Information Technology Cost Estimation Agencies Need to Address Significant Weakness in Policies and Practices
To estimate reliable cost for the sucess of an IT program by providing the basis for the informed decision making and realistic budget information. To assess the extent to which selected departments ... and agencies have appropriately implement costestimating policies an procedures(four caracteristics of a reliable cost estimation: comprehensive, well-documented, accurate, credible). ... IT cost estimation ... Check out what may go wrong with the information technology cost estimation. Results of the US GAO audit can help to identify high risk areas: comprehensiveness of estimations, their documentation ... , lack of adequacy and inadequate implementation.
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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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Copyright Office Needs to Develop Plans that Address Technical and Organizational Challenges
The mission of the Copyright Office, a service unit within the Library of Congress, is to promote creativity by administering and sustaining a national copyright system. As part of this mission ... , the Copyright Office registers about 500,000 creative works a year for copyright and records documentation related to copyright transfer and sale. In recent years, the Register of Copyrights has discussed ... the need for a modernized Copyright Office, to include upgrades to the current IT environment. ... No justified investments without IT strategy ... difficult to solve practical problems, but it can also put the overall mission of the Office at risk. ... GAO shows in its report on the US Copyright Office, what is a role of IT strategy in organisaion. Effects can be found at the bottom and at the top: the lack of strategic plan can make it more
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Report to the Public AccountsCommittee on mitigation of cyber attacks
have addressed the risk of cyber attacks and whether they have implemented these three security controls. ... 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 ... 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 Ministry of the Environment lacks a compact information system and still uses 125 separate information systems and databases
of the MoE. The audit identified the following risks: (1) non-existence of the Integrated environmental information system (IEIS) as an independent information system; (2) purchase of ICT, within the budget ... The objective of the audit was to scrutinise the management of funds earmarked for the purchase and administration of ICT within the MoE and selected organisations which come under the management ... chapter of the MoE, through a state co-funded organisation CENIA which comes under the management of the MoE; (3) utilisation of the information systems. The audited period was 2010 to 2013; where relevant ... ... Ministry of the Environment manages 125 information systems and databases ... The Ministry of the Environment (MoE) has for more than 20 years a legal obligation to administer and manage an Integrated Environmental Information System (IEIS). In spite of this fact, the existing ... systems (more than 125 information systems and databases) are designed, implemented and managed as individual information systems without a direct integration into a joint point of reference.
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