14 DAY TRIAL // The Philippines Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has announced that it will start moving all the country’s major websites to the Government Web Hosting Service. The government hopes that the move will improve both performance and security.
The Integrated Government Philippines (iGovPhil) Project has finished developing guidelines for the migration of websites owned by government agencies, state-owned corporations, financial organizations, and inter-agency programs and projects, Newsbytes.ph reports.
Over 100 government websites will be transferred and changed so that they follow the Uniform Website Content Policy.
The migration of the websites follows an administrative order issued by the country’s President, Benigno Aquino III, on July 12.
“Website security has always been a major issue with the government, and we have taken steps to secure vital government websites in response to past incidents, we have also made efforts to educate government webmasters on industry best practices for security and design,” commented DOST Undersecretary Louis Casambre.
“In anticipation of the issuance of this administrative order, we have assembled a pool of trainers to instruct webmasters on the use of the government website template, migration procedures and new content policies,” he added.
In the initial phase of the process, websites that have been targeted by hackers will be moved. The migration is expected to last between a week and a few months.
Before being moved to the DOST’s systems, all websites will undergo security checks and auditing. The security and performance of sites hosted by the government will be constantly monitored.
“With the issuance of this Administrativ Order, the public can expect an improved online presence from its government, not only will government websites have a uniform look and feel but other online services will also be available very soon through cloud applications being developed under iGovPhil,” Casambre noted.