Pii: S1058-0530(06)80142-9

RIOR TO E-GOVERNMENT, RECORDS and information were stored mainly on paper in files, filing cabinets, and vaults. Paper documents have a degree of separation between the client and the flow, storage, and retrieval of documents. Manual records management systems have established procedures to process and transfer documents through the system. These documents could also be tracked transparently through the organization; hence, if tampered with, the changes would be clearly evident. The security measures required to protect them focused mainly on the physical protection of the document and restricting permissions for people to physically access the records. They were written into polices and procedures and updated over many years. Although the documents could be copied, the paper type, the color, and the size would be difficult to match with or replace the original. Also, copying documents is traditionally a relatively slow process. This provided for documents a completely different degree of security to that of intranetor Internet-based systems, which have the capability for immediately downloading information, giving the client (end user) the ability to copy and retransmit this information in nanoseconds. This vulnerability exists for any organization, whether private or public, that has a Web presence (Straub & Welke, 1998; Backhouse & Dhillon, 2001). Information system security in government has previously concentrated on confidentiality of documents stored electronically (Spinellis et al., 1999). In terms of the public perception of government organizations, security means the protection of records and data that are held for the purpose of recording, administering, and monitoring the actions and policies of government agencies. The rapid growth in the volume of information stored electronically and E-commerce within government may increase the need for security to protect the privacy of this information and prevent fraud. From the public’s perspective, government is seen as one entity; hence, a security problem within one agency may be viewed as a failure of the whole of government process. Therefore, the P STEPHEN SMITH is a research student in the School of Information Systems Technology and Management at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.