For Immediate Release                             

Thursday, July 27, 2007

 

 

Contact:  Patrick Harris, 644-8608                                                  

Office of Information Technology     

 

 

Statewide Data Encryption Standard Released

 

Columbus, Ohio – State Chief Information Officer (CIO) Steve Edmonson today announced the release of statewide IT Standard ITS-SEC-01 which defines an encryption protocol to protect data across state agencies.  The standard is in response to Governor Strickland’s recent privacy and security Executive Order (EO) which charged OIT with creating a data encryption protocol by August 29th, or 75 days after the EO was announced.

 

“This new standard is a major step forward in protecting data contained within the state enterprise,” said State CIO Steve Edmonson.  “I am happy to announce that this standard was released well within the Governor’s timeframe.”

 

OIT also released an IT bulletin (ITB-2007.02) titled “Data Encryption and Securing Sensitive Data,” which defines which data the encryption standard applies to, and provides additional guidance for its implementation.  All state agencies must adhere to the new requirements within the standard.

 

The mission of the Office of Information Technology is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Ohio government, by providing statewide leadership, oversight, products and services for activities related to information technology.

 

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