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ARCHIVED - Performance Measurement for the Government On-Line Initiative
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A common infrastructure
The GOL initiative is developing a "whole of government" Secure Channel to provide secure, responsive, and economical on-line access to the federal government, as well as common network, support, authentication, information management, electronic payment, and other services in response to department and agency needs.
The short-term outcomes are robust security and privacy protection for on-line federal services. The services currently provided by the Secure Channel guard against network intrusions, ensuring the integrity of Web sites and databases, facilitating the secure exchange of information both externally and internally, as well as enabling transactions through services such as secure electronic payments processing. The Secure Channel is one of the ways of providing better security than various alternatives, such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL), because it includes: end-to-end encryption of data, a common solution for the identification and authentication of clients, and the infrastructure required for digital signatures (which verify not only identity, but also the authenticity of documents).
The medium-term outcomes will include increasing the take-up of on-line services and providing key enablers for more fundamental service transformation. First, the security and privacy safeguards provided through the Secure Channel will build citizen trust and confidence in using on-line federal services. Moreover, a common infrastructure like the Secure Channel will provide key enablers for "joined-up" and horizontal government services – it includes a telecommunications network for all federal departments and agencies that can be extended to other jurisdictions/third party organisations, and in the future will offer common applications facilitating the integration of related services. Migration to a common infrastructure will also enable new services and functionality (for example, the secure on-line viewing by a client of all government accounts) at a lower cost than if departments and agencies were to build their own infrastructures.
In addition, the Secure Channel is an example of the innovation that the GOL initiative is achieving, as it is a dynamic public-private sector partnership developing and using world-class technology to improve government service delivery.
