5 June 2013

Frontline operational reviews should follow government IT review

A review of public sector IT systems should prompt individual government agencies to measure their own systems in terms of the resourcing, training and human capacity needed to run them effectively, according to the Public Service Association.

The Government Chief Information Officer reviewed the security of publicly-accessible state sector agency IT systems, following last year’s WINZ kiosk breach.

“The review took a limited and technical look at the processes and policies around the management of information security. It didn’t really address the human capability and operation which sits behind and supports those systems,” says PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott.

“There are still questions around whether systems have been designed and resourced properly, whether staff have been given enough training, and how much of a role workload pressures play in ensuring systems and information are kept safe and secure.”

Recent problems with information security have come at a time of rapid technological change which is putting government agencies under enormous pressure to deliver more online and digital public services.

“There is a context to all of this which the review hasn’t addressed but which individual agencies should now consider,” says Brenda Pilott.

She says the review has clearly found a lot of room for improvement and it’s important that government agencies take the lessons on board to rebuild public trust.

“However as we’ve seen with Novopay and recent security breaches, more thought needs to be given to the speed at which systems are being rolled out and more effort put in to ensuring the human support and capacity is there to meet the demands.”

ENDS

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