Government ensures its information infrastructure secure
23 - 06 - 2000

The Government has been implementing effective policies and measures to ensure its information infrastructure safe and secure.

Addressing a conference on Internet security today (June 23), the Acting Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Cheng Yan-chee, said that security was a very important issue and was an integral part of every computer system that required careful consideration and planning.

"We believe that a good security infrastructure and an effective security policy are essential to an organisation," said Mr Cheng.

"To this end, we have stepped up our security infrastructure through the implementation of the Central Internet Gateway (CIG) in late March this year," he said.

The CIG enables government bureaux and departments to gain access to the Internet, and to disseminate information and communicate with the public over the Internet through a secure and centrally managed system.

The CIG has adopted internationally accepted Internet security standards, and equipped with security devices including firewalls, virus detection system, and intrusion recognition and response systems.

"Automated tools are employed to continuously monitor and control all incoming network traffic," said Mr Cheng, adding that with these tools, suspected intrusion activities could be handled promptly and effectively.

"In addition to the CIG, we have issued a comprehensive set of information security guidelines to all government bureaux and departments to assist them in implementing their own information security measures effectively.

"To ensure that the guidelines are complied with, all government bureaux and departments are required to appoint security administrators with the necessary information security knowledge to effectively implement the guidelines and to provide security-related assistance to the end-users," he continued.

The Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) also provides regular training to these security administrators on specific issues such as Internet security tools and data encryption technology.

"Regular review and assessment on potential security risks are also necessary," said Mr Cheng.

Security administrators are required to perform periodic security assessments and auditing to improve the security levels of all government network systems on an on-going basis.

To keep abreast of the trends of computer security attack and solutions available against such attack, ITSD closely monitors the information on computer security made available by international and local organisations.

In respect of computer virus, Mr Cheng said that government bureaux and departments were provided with guidelines and advice on the protection of computers against virus attacks such as installing anti-virus software to protect computers and using virus-scanning utilities.

Those guidelines and up-to-date information on computer virus, including virus alerts, are available on the ITSD web site ( http://www.itsd.gov.hk/itsd/eng/virus ).

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