Government promotes safe computing

Cabinet Office and Socitm collaborate on validation scheme

The government has made efforts to drive up interest in schemes to reduce consumer online fraud and promote information assurance (IA) to the public sector.

The Cabinet Office and Socitm announced a new year-long IA initiative and launched a validation scheme to test the claims of security products.

The Claims Tested (CCT) Mark is a Central Sponsor for Information Assurance (CSIA)-led initiative intended to provide government purchasers with an easy way of checking that security products and services live up to the claims they are making.

For a fee, products like firewalls and email filtering devices will be tested in specially accredited labs, and if they meet their vendors' claims, the CCT kitemark will be awarded.

"It's all about getting wider public sector awareness of the importance CCT Mark approved products.....there are enormous marketing benefits for vendors who have a product endorsed by this government scheme." said a Cabinet Office spokesperson.

Socitm's role in the year-long programme will involve raising awareness about information assurance among local authorities, according to Mark Brett of Socitm's Information Age Group.

There will be a series of events and website information on IA and an advice line and email support for Socitm members, as part of the initiative.

"The whole education piece needs to be done around information assurance – it's not just about security but [involves] policies and procedures too," said Brett. "We'll be driving this forward because of our national membership and regional branches."

Meanwhile, at a roundtable event last week attendees including ISPs, telcos and Government e-crime specialists argued the importance of resources such as Get Safe Online in educating consumers about online safety.

"We realised we needed a partnership between government, law enforcers and the private sector to get the information out there to [make the internet] safer," said Tony Neate of the NHTCU. "It is important to [raise] consumer confidence because if not, the internet will erode."