Gov’t Officers Participate In Information Security System Workshop

Public sector agencies benefitted from a one-week workshop on the implementation of the ISO 27001-information security management system designed to help organisations keep information assets secure.

Organised by Educentres Information Services Limited, the workshop was held at the Knutsford Court Hotel, New Kingston, from September 21 to 25.

Approximately 18 persons from organisations such as the Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA), e-Gov Jamaica Limited, Petrojam Limited, Registrar General’s Department (RGD), and Bank of Jamaica, among other agencies, participated in training sessions aimed at preparing them to implement the standard in their entities.

The final day saw participants making 15 to 20-minute presentations to a simulated panel of Chief Executive Officers on how they would convince the management team to implement the ISO standard.

Presentations were made to the Board of ‘Cyber Cars Limited’ seeking approval for the ISO 27001 Risk Treatment Plan.

The ultimate objective of this exercise was to provide the participants with the opportunity to demonstrate and reinforce their understanding of the ISO/IEC 27001 standard, tools, and techniques, for successful implementation.

“The Government is trying to make the ISO27001 the standard for information security in organisations in the public sector,” said Educentres Information Services Limited Director, Hugh Campbell.

While not able to give an implementation timeline, he underscored the need for this in order to protect valuable data.

The workshop, which was initially staged last year, has been ongoing and its participants have found it to be quite valuable.

“This was borne out by the evaluation forms. Everyone thinks it is a very good seminar and they have learnt a lot,’ Mr. Campbell said, adding that by virtue of this “they should be able to implement it in their own organisations.”