Obama, McCain,data security investment, economic slump – and you

By Khoo Boo Leong | Nov 3, 2008

0 comments

Digg

 Email

 Print

The two candidates in the 4 November 2008 US presidential election – Barack Obama and John McCain – have pledged to focus more on the IT infrastructure in the US and promote more widespread use of technology for cost-effective and efficient delivery of government e-services.

However, recent horror stories of data from government agencies being lost, stolen or sold in several countries have supersized the need for these agencies to build public trust regarding data privacy and security.

So, whoever gets elected, the US government – or any government for that matter – must continue to invest in cost-effective IT infrastructures that do not compromise on data availability, integrity and confidentiality.

“When it comes to data security, the biggest issue whoever wins the presidential elections, is still the current crisis in the financial markets,” said Brian Raymond, Director of Government Affairs at NetApp. “Budgets are going to be tighter in the private and public sectors and many organizations are going to find ways to stretch their investment dollar.”

Building public trust
Despite the offer of tax incentives to encourage corporations to invest more in their IT infrastructure, government agencies will have to decide how best to leverage on technology to increase the number of services and build public trust in government-delivered services while spending less of the taxpayer’s dollars. “That trust will be built on an infrastructure that is secure and maintains privacy of personal information such as medical records,” said Raymond. “Security will be the main issue within the broad investments in technology by the government.”

That issue will persist in an increasingly Web-based connected world where escalating cyber-attacks is threatening government entities that have a significant number of public-facing sites.

0 comments

Digg

 Email

 Print