Information security management in German local government

Abstract

4The growing importance of information security in organizations is undisputed. This is particularly true of local governments, because modern administrative action is no longer conceivable today without electronic communication media and IT procedures. The complexity of information technology, the increasing degree of networking (also with citizens) and the dependence of the administration on ITsupported procedures has led to the fact that the security of information technology and associated processes must be given a higher priority and a corresponding cybersecurity strategy must be substantiated. Existing approaches either fall short or cannot be applied to the context of local government without revision and adaptation. In this article, case studies of implementations of IT security projects in local government are examined. Specific focus is on the differences between information security management system (ISMS) implementations of different hierarchical levels of governmental organizations. The results show current challenges in increasing the resilience of the local government.

Information Security Management in Small Public Sector Organizations: Requirements and Design of a Procedural Approach

“…As a result, it was found that a significant improvement was achieved for all of them. The detailed results are published in [4] [12, p. 656].…”

“…Obtaining Information on Cyber Topics (OSINT) [44], [45], [26] 30. Government Interest [4] 31. Communication [16] 32.…”

“…[38] 49. Legal Requirements [4], [19] 50. Review of the Implementation of Measures [37] 51. Risk Consciousness [26], [31] 52.…”

“…In many centralized governmental structures, there are guidelines, recommendations, or even mandatory standards for setting up and operating an ISMS. However, in small federal governmental structures, this is often not the case [4] which establishes the responsibility for ISMS on the individual organisational unit. Furthermore, these organizations are heterogeneous in size, structure, administrative tasks, responsibilities, and resource availability.…”