The Intelligence Ministry plans to crack down on the theft of confidential state information by tightening up laws and policies relating to information security in government.
Safety and security minister Charles Nqakula acknowledged on Wednesday that a lot of government information was being stolen. "One of the biggest headaches that any government anywhere in the world has is that a lot of information is stolen from the government. We have similar problems," he told reporters during a briefing by the justice, crime prevention and security cabinet cluster.
Nqakula said there were guidelines, called the minimum information security standards, but many departments were failing to adhere to them. "Some of the information is available from our technical equipment, such as computers. There are many people who have been able to hack through those systems and have therefore been able to lay their hands on the information we have."
Governments worldwide reviewed their standards on information security "to ensure they are able to beat all those who want to break through the system they have and to gain illegal access. "That is why they are doing it. There are many examples in South Africa where there has been a breach: it is a matter that necessarily the government needs to deal with on an ongoing basis."
Nqakula denied that the review was prompted by the latest saga to hit the Intelligence Ministry, including whether there were breaches of government's firewalls in relation to what intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils has called "hoax emails". The origin of the emails - and whether they are in fact bogus - are the subjects of an investigation by Inspector-General Zolile Ngcakani as part of his probe into the country's three top spy bosses, who have been accused of illegal surveillance.
Source: IoL
No comments:
Post a Comment