Business Continuity
In recognition of the increasing reliance of government, business and home users on information and communications technologies (ICT), the Australian Government established the E-Security National Agenda (ESNA) in 2001 to create a secure and trusted electronic operating environment for both the public and private sectors.
Since then, the e-security landscape has changed significantly with the emergence of sophisticated, targeted and malicious online attacks. These attacks pose a risk to the protection of identity and financial information of home users and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and the reliable delivery of critical services by government and industry.
ESNA Review
In 2006 a review of ESNA was undertaken to ensure that Australia’s policy and operational framework continues to be responsive to the changing e-security environment.
The review found that because the online environment is highly interconnected, e-security threats to different segments of the Australian economy cannot be addressed in isolation. This key finding saw the development of three new priorities to address concerns and assist in achieving the original objective of creating a secure and trusted electronic operating environment for both the public and private sectors.
The three priorities are:
- Reducing the e-security risk to Australian Government information and communications systems;
- Reducing the e-security risk to Australia’s national critical infrastructure; and
- Enhancing the protection of home users and SMEs from electronic attacks and fraud.
The 2007-08 Budget provided $73.6 million over four years to address the concerns identified by the review and to assist in achieving the original objective of creating a secure and trusted electronic operating environment for both the public and private sectors.
As part of the new measure, the Department of Finance and Deregulation through the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) has been charged with the establishment of a single framework for the continued delivery of Government services in the event of a disruption and/or failure of Government-operated ICT.
The project will be governed by the Online Business Continuity Steering Committee (Steering Committee) that will provide information to the Chief Information Officers’ Committee to oversee the work and report to the Secretary’s Committee on Information Technology, and as necessary, work will be referred to the Business Process Transformation Committee.
Steering Committee membership
The Steering Committee is comprised of representatives from the following agencies:
- Attorney-General's Department
- Australian Taxation Office
- Centrelink
- Department of Defence - Defence Signals Directorate
- Department of Finance and Deregulation – Australian Government Information Management Office (Chair)
- Department of Health and Ageing
- Department of Immigration and Citizenship
- Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research
- Reserve Bank of Australia
Scope of the project
To counteract interruptions to business activities, and to protect critical business processes from the effects of major failures of information and communications technology systems or disasters and to ensure their timely resumption through the:
- analysis, development and maintenance of a managed process for whole of government business continuity;
- identification of events that can cause interruptions to business processes, along with the probability and impact of such interruptions and their consequences to online services;
- development and implementation of plans to maintain or restore operations and ensure availability of information at the required level and in the required time scales following interruption to, or failure of, critical business processes;
- development and maintenance of a single framework for business continuity plans to ensure plans are consistent, and to identify priorities for testing and maintenance; and
- testing and regular update of plans to ensure that they are up to date and effective.
Contact for information on this page: Online Business Continuity Team