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Jess Ma

Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has unveiled standards for the use of government computer systems after uncovering loopholes, including requiring bureaus and departments to ensure compliance when requesting digital project funds.
Danny Woo Ying-ming, commissioner of the ICAC, said on Wednesday that an investigation had found that some procedures for government computer systems had loopholes that raised the risk of corruption.
“Once systems are abused, data is tampered with and proper procedures bypassed, not only will it incur corruption risks, but it can also damage the government’s integrity,” he said at a ceremony introducing the standards.
Woo said that as of July, all government bureaus and departments were mandated by the Digital Policy Office to assess whether their computer systems complied with the standards when requesting funds under the Capital Works Reserve Fund for administrative computer systems.
The integrity assurance standards cover 12 steps for internal work processes and focus on users, system administration and monitoring.
Requiring government organisations to assess their compliance with the standards was intended to prevent corruption-related risks, the ICAC said.
Such risks include unauthorised data access, ineffective due diligence, circumvention of rules and over-reliance on manual steps, such as checking and sampling, that could be prone to manipulation for corruption.
Lillian Cheong Man-lei, the city’s acting technology minister, said during the ceremony that authorities had sought to strike a balance between safety and development when implementing digital measures.
Describing the ICAC’s standards as a tool to bolster integrity and data safety, she said government organisations would be able to pre-empt corruption by integrating anti-graft elements early on in their work processes.

“Incorporating integrity measures into our computer systems will make our use of innovation safer, more steadfast and win residents’ trust,” Cheong said.
She added that adopting these measures would bolster civil servants’ awareness of conflicts of interest and the need for integrity.
The standards called for government organisations to clearly define all access rights and grant staff access to various data and systems in accordance with their operational needs.
They also advocated the use of more secure access methods, such as two-factor authentication.
To prevent data tampering, the anti-corruption agency urged government organisations to adopt watermarks, encryption measures and blockchain technologies.
The agency also pointed out that reliance on paper declarations stating there were no conflicts of interest risked omission, loss, falsification or backdating.
The ICAC added that manual processes such as checking and sampling could also be susceptible to manipulation.
The agency called for the introduction of mandatory electronic conflict-of-interest declarations and automatic repetitive data processing.


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Independent Commission Against Corruption unveils standards after revealing procedures for government computer systems had loopholes


Independent Commission Against Corruption unveils standards after revealing procedures for government computer systems had loopholes.


Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC)

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China

ICAC sets integrity standards for government computers to fight misuse

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Independent Commission Against Corruption unveils standards after revealing procedures for government computer systems had loopholes

Independent Commission Against Corruption unveils standards after revealing procedures for government computer systems had loopholes