e-Government

e-Government, also called electronic administration, is the management of administrative and governmental processes through digital means. It covers the tools and platforms used to carry out procedures, interactions and services between citizens, businesses and public bodies.

The purpose is to make public services more efficient, more transparent and easier to reach. It also concentrates a great deal of personal data and identity into systems that are, by definition, publicly exposed.

From a security point of view, e-government means protecting sensitive data and the digital infrastructure that public services run on. The risks that come with it are the obvious ones made larger: attacks against systems that cannot simply be taken offline, loss of confidential information, and the need to keep public confidence in services people have no alternative to using.

Secure authentication and authorisation are the centre of it. Citizens have to be able to reach services safely, and the systems have to guarantee that only the right person can carry out a given action. That is what prevents unauthorised access and protects the integrity and confidentiality of the data.

Governments implement electronic signature, strong authentication and secure transport for this reason. Encryption and protection against malware are what keep online transactions intact and stop data being manipulated in the process.

The Spanish context

In Spain the security requirements for public sector systems are not left to each body to invent. The Esquema Nacional de Seguridad sets the required controls by category of system, and the CCN-STIC guides set out how to implement them. Any supplier building or operating a service for a public body is working inside that framework, whether or not the contract mentions it by name.

Where to read more

European Union, eGovernment: the EU strategy on electronic administration, including the initiatives on security and privacy in online public services.

NIST, guidelines on electronic authentication: detailed guidance on the authentication component, which is the part of e-government that decides everything else.

United Nations Public Administration Network, e-Government: global trends in electronic administration, including the security and data protection dimension.

A worked example

A citizen needs to renew a passport through an online government service. They sign in to the portal with their electronic identity and use an electronic signature to authenticate the application. The platform uses secure transport to protect the personal information while documents are submitted. It runs its own verification so that the submission is processed reliably and only authorised staff can reach the data. The procedure becomes considerably simpler for the citizen, and the security of the platform is what stands between that convenience and the exposure of everything it holds.