The protection and security of electronic information held by Australian government agencies

• The Australian National Audit Office

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29 March 2011The Attorney‐General has overall policy responsibility for Australian Government protective security arrangements, while agency Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are responsible for the protective security arrangements within their own organisations. This includes the requirement to ‘actively manage security risks associated with electronic data transmission, aggregation and storage’. Given the increasing reliance on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to deliver services, electronic information security is an increasingly important element of the overall protective security framework.

Agency CEOs are required to have in place effective protective security programs that cover requirements associated with:

• each agency’s capacity to function;
• maintaining the public’s confidence in agencies;
• the safeguarding of official resources and information held on trust; and
• the safety of those employed to carry out the functions of Government and those who are clients of Government.