NALED and E-Government Alliance Testing Security of City and Municipality IT Systems and Citizen Data Protection
NALED and companies gathered in the E-Government Alliance will conduct security tests on IT systems, websites and applications in selected cities and municipalities within the next two months. The aim of the action is to check the quality of citizens' data protection on the local level and to eliminate the weaknesses that would allow misuse of information due to hacker attacks.
"The development of e-government will be a major challenge for local governments. The Alliance and NALED want to help them improve the sustainability and security of IT systems in order to be ready to provide e-services, but also to have awareness of responsible use and storage of data entrusted to them," said Nataša Sekulić, IBM Manager for Serbia and the President of the E-Government Alliance, at the first workshop for representatives of local governments held today in Belgrade.
Zlatko Petrović from the Office of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection pointed out that, since the beginning of the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection, a total of 274 supervisory procedures were carried out towards local government bodies, and the procedures were initiated both by citizens' and official reports.
In addition to IT system tests, the project envisages four workshops in Belgrade, Kragujevac, Niš and Novi Sad, for administration directors and information security officers in 119 local governments, where they will learn more about the new obligations under the Personal Data Protection Act and the Law on Information Security and planned regulatory changes. The Alliance and NALED partnered with the Office of the Government of Serbia for IT and E-Government I implementing the project, while the project was supported by the Office of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection.
"By enacting the law on e-government that is now in the parliamentary procedure, the Office will be in charge of the security of IT systems of local governments, and it is through such projects that we want to promote cooperation between the local and central levels of government, further develop e-government, and provide quality services to citizens and the economy", said Mihailo Jovanović, Director of IT and E-Government Office.
Realization of the project was supported by the members of the Alliance, Asseco SEE, Comtrade, IBM, KPMG, SAGA, SBS and SAP. The information security managers of these companies, in cooperation with the local government authorities and the Office for IT and E-Government, will implement the so-called ‘ethical hacking’ of IT systems of cities and municipalities. It is a controlled attack that analyzes and searches for weak points in the information system. After testing, local government will prepare a report with recommendations for remedying deficiencies.
The E-Government Alliance is a working body within NALED that gathers 44 companies and local governments. It was formed with the aim to define recommendations for improving the business environment through the development of electronic administration and e-services. The Alliance provides support to the Government of Serbia and line institutions in implementing the defined policies, and one of the first joint ventures was the drafting of the Action Plan of the Government of Serbia for the development of e-government and adoption of the Law on E-Commerce.