IT security- a crucial success factor for e-government!

Abstract

More and more public administrations are moving towards electronic business processes based on information technology (IT). As public administration processes need to fulfil specific requirements, among them a high degree of correctness, IT security becomes increasingly important. Therefore, IT security requirements deserve special attention, when public administration business processes are being (re)engineered. This paper reports on a process reengineering project in the German public administration and its relation to IT security. Section 1 extends the motivation before Section 2 describes the special characteristics of public administration services in Germany. Section 3 then shows how to integrate security into electronic governmental processes. The main steps of a security analysis are explained by an example: the communication process that is taking place between the bidder and the party awarding the contract during public tendering procedures. The paper concludes with recommendations on how to implement electronic processes within the public sector. © 2003 by Springer Science+Business Media New York.