IT SECURITY INITIATIVES

MACEDONIAN IT EXPERTS COMPLETE U.S. COMPUTER SECURITY TRAINING, November 2006

Fifty nine systems managers and systems architects from various Macedonian government agencies have successfully completed computer security training courses and will receive certificates issued by Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The training was held in Macedonia, carried out by the Alexandria Training Center. It was sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) East Central European Scholarship Program, and by the e-Gov Project, which is supported by USAID/Macedonia. USAID is part of the U.S. Mission to Macedonia.

"Many agencies in the Macedonian Government are at an early stage in their information technology (IT) development, and even the leaders are only starting to come to grips with security in the total sense, especially as it applies to new systems in many fields, particularly the financial sector," says Jovce Plastinovski, Deputy Chief of Party of the USAID e-Gov Project.

"With the knowledge and skills acquired during the training program the trainees should be able to focus on practical application of IT security and to raise the level of awareness of IT security in general in their institutions."

As a result of the training, the ability of the Macedonian Government to secure the information it stores and transmits between government agencies will be enhanced, as will its ability to deliver services to the public. Increased IT security capacity allows for a greater use of IT which, in turn, can lead to better-managed governmental institutions that are more transparent and efficient.

LEADERS IN IMPLEMENTING IT SECURITY IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR 2 June 2006

USAID in cooperation with Georgetown University organized Total IT Security Course. The organization of the course was supported by e-Gov Project and Alexandria as training provider.

The e-Gov Project would like to congratulate the following for successfully completing the Total IT Security Course and having passed the Certified Information Systems Security Professional testing program:

Aleksandar Acev - Agency for Electronic Communications, Natasa Odnakozova - Basic Court Skopje 1, Tomislav Stojanov - Customs Office, Viktor Hristov - Customs Office, Goran Stojanovski - Ministry of Education and Science, Genti Ismaili - Ministry of Transport and Telecommun, Martin Tasevski - National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, Kliment Kocovski, Sector for European Integration, Slobodan Karajovanovic - Statistical Office, Mane Necev - Macedonian Parliament

WORKSHOPS ON PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS TO ADDRESSING IT PRIVACY March 2006

March 21-22, 2006: The e-Gov Project organized two workshops entitled "Privacy in the Macedonian and International ICT Environments". Separate sessions were organised for the public sector and private sector giving helpful examples of IT Privacy practices for participants to implement immediately after returning to their offices.

Under the Law on Personal Data Protection all institutions that collect personal data will need to register their databases with the Directorate for Personal Data Protection (DPDP) as well are review internal policies to comply with the new law. Before the workshops, many of the participants were not aware of the new requirements. Both sessions proved to be extremely beneficial as they also functioned as a necessary "match maker" between the DPDP and the public and private sector.

The topics covered include the EU legal framework for data protection, privacy in the context of e-Government and e-Commerce, Macedonian laws in the context of IT privacy and cyber security.

Click on your preferred presentation to download copies of the workshop materials.

- Macedonian legal framework and practice in the field of Personal Data Protection (available in Macedonian only)
Mrs. Marijana Marusic, Director of Directorate for Personal Data Protection

- Macedonian legal framework and practice in the field of security of classified information (English version) (Macedonian version)
Mr. Mile Mickov, Head of Sector within Directorate for Security of Classified Information

- Creating Trust in the Online Environment (available in English only)
Mr. Jim Dempsey, Center for Democracy and Technology

Other reading material

- Implementation of the EU legal framework for data protection, with specific reference to the law on personal data protection of the Republic of Macedonia (English version) (Macedonian version)

- Press Release: U.S. helps Macedonia improve IT privacy (English version) (Macedonian version)