The Public Sector CIO Convex 2019 – Gaining the edge: Navigating the future was held from 8-9 October at the Sime Darby Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur.
The event saw the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Planning Unit (MAMPU) and OpenGov collaborating for the fourth time on a two-day event which featured a series of case study presentations and panel discussions on several areas of technology.
Technology Case Study 2 – How to deliver integrated digital experience for citizens
Steve Thomas, Strategic Account Director, ANZ/Asia Pacific, Alfresco, Australia talked about the importance of opensource over rigidity in lock-in.
He said that maximum exposure is needed to achieve the unique goals of government. Content management, governance for security and the process for carrying it out is needed to achieve this.
Steve listed the challenges in citizen services architecture:
- The way data is received across various formats and platforms
- Processing it and the operations
- Securing data
- Existing systems cannot accept a photo, audio or video
- Many processes are manual or paper-based
- Orchestration and coordination are weak
- Lack of communication, not aware that end-product is done
On how customers are meeting challenges, he talked about Malaysia’s Digital Document Management System (DDMS 2.0). Its record management services comply with the life cycle of the government records for electronic record creation, storage, maintenance and purging (removing info which is not of use).
It is also interoperable with legacy systems.
Keynote Presentation 1 – Enter e-Estonia: The coolest digital society
Andrus Kaarelson, Director of State Information System, Information System Authority, Republic of Estonia shared about the various digital innovations created and implemented in Estonia.
He said that e-services are much more convenient and timesaving. On the essential “weapons” of Estonia, he listed the following:
- Internet is a social right
- Every Estonian resident has an electronic ID
- 99% of services are online
- Estonians trust e-solutions
He shared about Unique I-voting:
Created in 2005, this system allows citizens to cast legally blinding votes over the internet. Estonia is the only country in the world to offer this to its citizens.
On the ease of doing business, he shared of how e-services have allowed the optimisation of processes:
- 18 mins to start a company
- Hassle free e-taxation
- eResidency: Estonian e-services to every world citizen
Full automatisation in tax reporting is expected to be achieved by 2020. He also talked about Estonia’s use of an electronic ID for its citizens.
Andrus pointed out that Estonia was one of the pioneers for using Blockchain technology. It was the first nation state in the world to deploy blockchain technology in 2012, for integrity verification of government registries and data.
He said that experimentation of technologies is also done, citing examples of self-driving vehicles and door-to-door robot transport.
Andrus concluded by sharing that the goal for 2020 is to be a proactive government that provides e-services for name and residency changes and for other areas.
Technology Case Study 3 – Lessons learned: Reducing Cyber Exposure Risk
Richard Bussiere, Chief Technical Lead Asia Pacific, Tenable, Singapore said that the biggest problem in understanding cyber-exposure is apathy. There is a lack of understanding of how to measure cyber-exposure and risks. “What you don’t know can kill you,” he said.
He said that machines are taking over processes. But with this comes risk exposure, from the traditional computing devices to the intelligent devices which communicate with the internet.
He shared about Singapore’s practice of “Appi-fication”- using multiple apps for several purposes (eg. paying for parking or booking a flight).
Richard said that IT and OT convergence creates an integrated IT network. This leads to an increase in cyber exposure. While low-level entities may not be vulnerable, higher-level digital control systems are more vulnerable.
Richard went on to list the four key questions that organisations must answer:
- Where are we exposed?
- What should we focus on first?
- How are we reducing exposure over time?
- How do we compare to our peers?
