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Highly sensitive information pertaining to citizens and government transactions is processed in an electronic format, making information security a critical part of e-Government applications and architectures. Information security measures should ideally span from authentication to authorisation and from logical/physical access control to auditing of electronic transactions and log books. The lack of such measures compromises confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. Today, most e-Government projects in developing countries in Southern Africa Developing Community (SADC) face challenges in two main areas, namely, information security and application software integration. This paper aims to discuss and analyse the information security requirements for e-Government projects and proposes an information security governance model for service-based architectures (SBAs).

The current state of information security in emerging economies in SADC countries was researched. The main problems identified were the lack of software integration and information security governance, policy and administration. The design consists of three basic layers: information security governance defined at the strategic level of the government; information security policy/management defined at the management/operational level; and information security measures, implemented at the technical level. This section also proposes a policy for implementing public key infrastructures to protect information, transactions and e-services. A Token-Ring-based mechanism for implementing Single-Sign-On has also been developed as part of this study.

The main problems identified were the lack of software integration and information security governance, policy and administration. These challenges are causing e-government projects to stagnate.

The proposed approach for implementing information security in e-Government systems will ensure a holistic approach to ensuring confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation, allowing e-Government maturity to progress from “interaction” to “online transaction” stage in emerging economies.

Research has not focused on developing a solution for emerging economies which are facing difficulties in integration software applications to deploy end-to-end e-services and to produce an underlying identity management architecture and information security governance to secure the e-services developed and deployed using an SBA. The work produced in this paper is specific to SBAs in e-government environments where legacy systems already exist. The work includes: information security governance defined at the strategic level of the government; information security policy/management defined at the management/operational level; and information security measures implemented at the technical level. This section also proposes a policy for implementing public key infrastructures to protect information, transactions and e-services. A Token-Ring-based mechanism for implementing Single-Sign-On has also been developed as part of this study.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the problems associated with the development of e‐government in Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries and propose a novel framework for adopting service orientation. This framework includes a new approach and architecture for implementing service orientation called SBA‐eGOV (Service Based Architecture for E‐Government).

A comprehensive literature review was carried out to study various service oriented architecture (SOA) adoption strategies and implementation methods. The most appropriate adoption strategy and implementation method were selected. Web service adoption and implementation/development methodologies were designed separately, and then integrated to form one single framework. Web services best practices were studied to identify the specificities of web services for e‐government projects in SADC countries. A service orientation framework, which includes a service orientation development/implementation method, was developed for e‐government projects. Data from the UN report on e‐government readiness for year 2004‐2010 were analysed.

The trend showed that the e‐government index of SADC countries has been stagnating (even degrading) since 2005. One of the main reasons is the lack of software application integration. The main area of weakness is the lack of a complete framework for adopting and implementing web services. A framework for adopting service orientation, developing web services and deploying e‐services is required to enable application software integration.

By applying the proposed framework, e‐services can be deployed more rapidly to citizens, businesses and government departments.

SBA‐eGOV can be adopted by countries where e‐government projects have completed the “Internalisation” and “Interaction” stages and use to deliver e‐services to citizens.

This work comprises development of a new framework, SBA‐eGOV, which consists of a service‐orientation adoption methodology, a service‐orientation implementation methodology and a service‐based architecture for government. SBA‐eGOV is a novel and complete framework which addresses service‐orientation adoption, development and implementation. To date, no such research work has been undertaken to analyse and solve the problems surrounding e‐government projects in SADC.

This paper aims to develop a framework for critical information infrastructure (CII) protection in smart government, an alternative measure for common cybersecurity frameworks such as NIST Cybersecurity Framework and ISO 27001. Smart government is defined as the government administration sector of CII due to its similarity as a core of smart technology.

To ensure the validity of the data, the research methodology used in this paper follows the predicting malfunctions in socio-technical systems (PreMiSTS) approach, a variation of the socio-technical system (STS) approach specifically designed to predict potential issues in the STS. In this study, PreMiSTS was enriched with observation and systematic literature review as its main data collection method, thematic analysis and validation by experts using fuzzy Delphi method (FDM).

The proposed CII protection framework comprises several dimensions: objectives, interdependency, functions, risk management, resources and governance. For all those dimensions, there are 20 elements and 41 variables.

This framework can be an alternative guideline for CII protection in smart government, particularly in government administration services.

The author uses PreMiSTS, a socio-technical approach combined with thematic analysis and FDM, to design a security framework for CII protection. This combination was designed as a mixed-method approach to improve the likelihood of success in an IT project.

In this chapter, a general introduction on artificial intelligence (AI) is given as well as an overview of the advances of AI in different engineering disciplines, including its effectiveness in driving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). This chapter begins with some fundamental definitions and concepts on AI and machine learning (ML) followed by a classification of the different categories of ML algorithms. After that, a general overview of the impact which different engineering disciplines such as Civil, Chemical, Mechanical, Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering have on the UN SDGs is given. The application of AI and ML to enhance the processes in these different engineering disciplines is also briefly explained. This chapter concludes with a brief description of the UN SDGs and how AI can positively impact the attainment of these goals by the target year of 2030.

The Colombian Government launched an e-government initiative in 2008 to facilitate communication among the government, citizens and organizations. Considering the high level of mistrust of citizens and businesses toward governmental institutions, the government must ensure the security of the information handled and provided by online users. Results to date have not been adequate in the usage of e-government systems. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the level of online security affects usage and impacts the cost-effectiveness and quality of the operations and, consequently, the operational effectiveness of organizations using e-government systems.

Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the antecedents and outcomes of operational effectiveness. To this end, 440 usable questionnaires were collected from managers and personnel from Colombian organizations using e-government systems.

According to the findings, there is a positive predictive relationship between online security and the dimensions of electronic government effectiveness. Furthermore, neither online security nor any of the dimensions of electronic government effectiveness affect the operational costs of organizations. Nonetheless, the quality of information has a positive effect on the quality of operations. As a result, through the quality of the information, online security has an indirect impact on the quality of operations.

The authors used a convenience sample, carefully selecting respondents based on their operations and practice knowledge and implementation of online security processes. Besides, compared to previous research conducted in developed nations, the sample size is relatively small. Because the survey is based on responses from official companies, it must also be taken into account that over 50% of Colombian labor is informal. Furthermore, Colombia is a nation with a high level of mistrust. When considering these factors, generalizability to all industrial sectors is questionable. Nevertheless, the findings of this study offer relevant information that indicates the need for more extended and comprehensive quantitative research.

Improvements in organizations that use e-government systems, based on the benefits that high-quality information brings to operational performance – cost and quality – will help them survive and become more sustainable and competitive. Furthermore, this study supports the assertion that aspects like online security are critical in promoting information and communication technology uptake and user acceptance in transition and rising economies like Colombia.

There is still a scarcity of information on assessing the effectiveness of electronic government systems and their impact on the quality and cost of operations in organizations that use them. Additionally, Colombia, as a country with low levels of trust between citizens, organizations and government, still lacks information about the impact of online security on the effectiveness of its operations.

This paper presents a systematic literature review, including content and bibliometric analyses, of the impact of blockchain technology (BT) in auditing, to identify trends, research areas and construct an agenda for future research.

The authors include studies from 2010 to 2020 in their structured literature review (SLR), using accounting journals on the Scopus database, which yielded 40 articles with blockchain and auditing at its core.

One of the contributions of the authors’ analyses is to group the prior research, and therefore also the agenda for future research, into three main research areas: (1) Blockchain as a tool for auditing professionals to improve business information systems to save time and prevent fraud; (2) Smart contracts enabling Audit 4.0 efficiency, reporting, disclosure and transparency; (3) Cryptocurrency and initial coin offerings (ICOs) as a springboard for corporate governance and new venture financing. The authors’ findings have several important implications for practice and theory.

The results of this study emphasise that (1) the disruption of blockchain in auditing is in a nascent phase and there is a need for compelling empirical studies and potential for the involvement of practitioners; (2) there may be a need to reconsider audit procedures especially suited for digitalisation and BT adoption; (3) standards, guidelines and training are required to pivot towards and confront the challenge BT will represent for auditing; and (4) there are two sides to the BT coin for auditing, enthusiasm about the potential and risk upon implementation. These practical implications can also be seen as a template for future research in a quest to align theory and practice.

The authors’ SLR facilitates the identification of research areas and implications, forming a useful baseline for practitioners, professionals and academics, as they draft the state of the art on the disruption of blockchain in auditing, highlighting how BT is changing auditing activities and traditions.

The purpose of this study is to examine the emergences of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have changed the way human beings communicate and interact. In the past few years, this has become crucial in the context of business, especially in start-up fund raising. Access to venture capital financing is a crucial issue in the entrepreneurial finance literature. To further explore the use of social media for entrepreneurs, the authors have explored how entrepreneurs use social media for fund-raising purposes. The authors have used Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to collect entrepreneurs’ funding data from Crunchbase and entrepreneurs’ social media data from Facebook and Twitter. The results show that social media is significant for start-ups in their success or failure in fund raising. Investing energy into utilizing online social media and exhausting these platforms consciously contributes to the financial success of start-ups. Therefore, start-ups which are popular among online fans and followers can manage to raise larger amounts of funding in the early stages.

This research relies on a wide range of quantitative data, which was obtained from three different online sources which includes Facebook, Twitter and CrunchBase. The use of a variety of internet technologies have been linked to increases in individuals’ social network diversity, which likely increases access to social capital at the individual level (Hampton and Wellman, 2003). The dataset was retrieved by using APIs, which enables the collection of novel metrics, from various sources that provide a well-structured dataset (Priem and Hemminger, 2010). Hypotheses were tested on a longitudinal dataset from 2000 to 2013, comprising general and investment data and social media metrics of start-ups. First, a sample from the database was selected to ensure data availability and reliability. After sampling, all the selected companies’ Twitter and Facebook activities were observed and metrics were analysed. SPSS was used to conduct correlation and regression analyses.

This study analysed whether start-ups’ social media convention is able to influence investors’ choices, especially the amount of total funding given. The paper showed that innovative start-up companies were able to benefit from communicating on social media platforms. Start-ups, which were using Facebook and Twitter effectively, focusing on valuable social media metrics, received larger amount of funding in total. Furthermore, it was observed that as their business grew, they intended to put more effort into online social networking. It confirmed the idea that businesses are using social media consciously.

This is the only paper that the authors could find that examines the relationship between fundraising and activity on social networks.