Making Digital Public Services Secure by Design

October 25, 2022

The African Union – European Union (AU-EU) Digital for Development (D4D) Hub made an interview with Jana Silaškova, Head of Internationalisation at the Estonian ICT Cluster.

At he “Three questions on D4D series” Jana Silaškova draws lessons from the Estonian experience in integrating cybersecurity into its e-governance infrastructure and identifies opportunities for African partners currently engaged in digitalising their public services.

The delivery of digital services offers governments many opportunities to increase transparency, inclusivity, and efficiency across the public sector. For example, digitalising the healthcare sector and introducing digital services such as e-prescriptions can help save significant public resources and patients’ time, while offering seamless e-services for businesses such as online registration that can speed up processes and foster entrepreneurship and innovation.

However, e-government infrastructure is also vulnerable to cyber attacks which can compromise data and damage computer systems, costing millions in damages for governments and threatening citizens’ privacy and security. Governments should therefore be prepared for such attacks and adopt preventive measures. Cybersecurity should be an integral part of the design of digital public services.

Read an interview:

ITL/Estonian ICT Cluster is an implementing partner of the African Union – European Union (AU-EU) Digital for Development (D4D) Hub.

The same topic will also be discussed during the workshop “Roadmap for an Effective e-Government Ecosystem” at the 6th Tanzania Annual ICT Conference 2022 in Zanzibar #TAIC2022.