Security and Privacy Issues in Cloud-Based E-Government

Abstract

Cloud computing services have grown rapidly over the years. Government agencies are also interested in cloud-based provision for their E-government processes. Despite the advantages of cloud-related technologies, there are many security issues as well that fall into several categories of breaches with serious impacts. All these breaches have serious legal and reputational implications. Therefore, governments need to ensure that inherent security threats can be neutralized to ensure that data or information stored in the cloud are well protected. It is imperative for cloud-based e-government (CB-eGov) to use an information security management system (ISMS) to effectively manage CB-eGov. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss how cloud computing can be incorporated in an e-government implementation to improve its efficiency without compromising information security. As such, the government needs to take special care in ensuring security, privacy, and confidentiality of information stored in the cloud.