Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1101649
16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 APRIL 2019 FILM TECHNOLOGY Securing government IN a world of ever-increasing cybercrime, cyber security must become a major priority for businesses, governments, organisations and individuals. We are living in a time where cyber criminals are rapidly in- creasing, the costs associated with attempting to stop them are sky rocketing, and secu- rity breaches are costing huge amounts of money in lost in- formation and information recovery. Within the operations of the Malta Information Tech- nology Agency (MITA) – the central driver of government's ICT policy, programmes and initiatives in Malta – we treat cyber security as one of our topmost priorities. Our mission is to enable the government of Malta to pro- tect its digital assets through a comprehensive approach that ensures the confidentiality, integrity and availability of government data at all times. One of the primary thrusts that we have been actively working on to reach this ob- jective is the set-up of a robust and detailed Security Govern- ance Framework. The starting point of this framework has been the artic- ulation and effective commu- nication of a comprehensive Information Security Policy that is entirely based on the ISO27001 standard – the in- ternationally recognised in- dustry best practice relevant to information security. The implementation of this policy is further complement- ed by a regime of governance checks that provide the neces- sary assurance on the degree of compliance prevalent with- in MITA operations. MITA has also been prepar- ing itself extensively to effec- tively reduce the likelihood of occurrence of and recover from disruptive incidents when they arise through the implementation of a Business Continuity Management Sys- tem that is aligned to the re- quirements of the ISO22301 standard. This initiative has enabled MITA to focus its energy and resources on mitigating risks on its critical infrastructure and subsequently devise a methodology that provides structure and control during times of disruption. This governance framework is now being extended to also cover the protection of envi- ronments that are migrated or newly commissioned on MITA's new Hybrid Cloud Enabling Infrastructure. This is an innovative project which re-designs the way we seek to provide assurance to our clients that the infrastruc- ture on which government data resides is adequately safeguarded from the ever- increasing threats defining to- day's cyber space. MITA is heavily investing in cutting edge technology that will provide it and its clients with the ability to continu- ously scan for vulnerabilities and obtain real-time visibility on the operational health and security posture of environ- ments hosted on this plat- form. We have also strengthened our knowledge and support- ing mechanisms surrounding our state-of-the-art security operations centre to enable Fiorita Sceberras MITA is heavily investing in cutting edge technology that will provide it and its clients with the ability to continuously scan for vulnerabilities and obtain real- time visibility on the operational health and security posture of environments hosted on this platform