Government IT services have an average of 30 serious security alerts per month, Claudio Grech, chairman of the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) said today.
He was speaking during a press conference where MITA announced that it had attained the globally recognised ISO 27001 security accreditation.
The government agency was congratulated by IT Minister Austin Gatt, who said that the government’s strategy was to use the latest technologies and information systems to improve the services it offered to citizens and businesses.
Dr Gatt said an increase in usage of ICT systems within the public sector also meant that the agency faced additional illicit attempts to gain access to Government data.
“As Government, we need to ensure that data is secure and that we have continuity of service at all time. The safeguarding of this information data is one of the fundamental principles in any security programme. I am therefore glad to see that MITA does not only measure this security against its own standards but also on international benchmarks such as the ISO 27001 standard through reliable and proven processes” added Dr Gatt.
MITA’s core services were accredited with the ISO 27001 standard after a five-day intensive audit conducted by AFAQ-EAQA - a UK certification body forming part of the AFNOR Groupe. As part of the accreditation process, led by MITA’s Information Security Department, the Agency identified risks associated with its operational processes and implemented the necessary controls required to lower these risks. The external auditor verified how MITA successfully implemented over 130 controls forming part of the ISO 27001 standard. MITA also implemented a lean risk management framework to identify, prioritise and address security risks related to the three main aspects of information security: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.
Mr Grech said that even though the agency was now ISO 27001 accredited, it would still be vigilant in its approach towards security.
“In the last 18months, we have introduced new advanced virus and malware protection systems on all Government computers, we enhanced our monitoring tools and processes, and we installed a system to fully-control privileged passwords used by administrators” said Mr Grech. An awareness campaign aimed at educating Government employees on various security aspects was also launched.
“Within Government we have an average of 30 serious security alerts per month. This means that MITA has to continually keep abreast of all the developments (good or bad) within the ICT world. As an Agency we invest over a million euro per annum in the technology and operations of our information security department” added Mr Grech.