The British Standards Institution (BSI) has certified the University with a BS7799 Information Security Management System Standard, making Tamkang the first academic institution that has passed BSI’s requirements. Even among non-academic institutions, there are less than 20 organizations in Taiwan that have passed such scrutiny. With this achievement, TKU’s President, Flora C.I. Chang proudly received the certificate from Mr. Gao Yi-ming, the General Manager of BSI Taiwan at Hong Tai Building on Monday, October 11.

The Director of TKU’s Information Processing Center (IPC), Huang Ming-da points out the importance of maintaining high quality information security at his center. For example, in its mainframe operation room, the IDC, there are some highly sensitive and vital electronic devices such as servers that control Internet access, university affairs, academic affairs, general affairs and accounting systems. These systems are extremely critical for teachers and students running their day-to-day tasks; therefore, it is no exaggeration to consider IDC as the ‘heart’ of TKU’s electronic operations. Therefore safeguarding its integrity ensures the healthy operation of any electronic communication on campus. Furthermore, the utmost goal of a good security management is certainly maintaining uninterrupted operations, so IPC, in fact, has set up and followed a well-establish information security management system (ISMS). However, there had never been any proper appraisal system nor safety training program installed until BSI signed up with TKU. By working with BSI, University’s ISMS can optimize all security systems.

BS7799 ISMS provides the most popular and recognized safety standards worldwide. It is primarily concerned with security policy; organization of assets and resources; asset classification and control; personnel security; physical and environmental security; communications and operations management; access control, systems development and maintenance; business continuity management and issues of compliance.

With the help of IBM Tivoli System Management, the team at the IDC mainframe operation room started in February this year to run repeated tests on storing, back-up, retrieval as well as other operations meticulously. This dedication enabled the team to pass the certification in six months. However, good work needs to be kept up as there will be an appraisal every half a year and a new certificate is required every three years.