Legislative Yuan, The

High Legislative Body Promotes Information Security and Efficiency

Taiwan’s highest legislative body, the Legislative Yuan seats 113 legislators supported by 4,000 assistants, administrative personnel, and service employees. The legislators and their staffs rely on IT systems, including the Windows® XP operating system, to meet the public interest, provide critical services, and promote legislative efficiency. To safeguard sensitive information, security is a basic element of the information architecture at the Legislative Yuan. To promote security, manage user access, and save energy, the legislative body used specialized tools to upgrade its desktop computers to the Windows Vista® operating system. Now the Legislative Yuan provides legislators, staff personnel, and administrators with comprehensive information services while preventing unauthorized system changes, decreasing the risk of information exposure, and reducing power consumption.

 

Situation

One of the five federal branches of Taiwan, the Legislative Yuan is Taiwan’s highest legislative body. The Legislative Yuan is a large and complex organization, with 12 sections and numerous committees. One hundred and thirteen legislators sit in the Legislative Yuan, supported by 2,700 assistants and administrative personnel, with almost 1,300 employees in service offices throughout Taiwan.

With Windows Vista, we’re using human resources efficiently and being environmentally responsible. We’ve simplified our administrative processes and enhanced productivity. Chen Hsi-yang Director of Information Technology, Legislative Yuan

In total, 4,000 people are responsible for carrying out the official affairs of the Legislative Yuan, all of them relying on IT systems—software, computers, servers, and networks—to help keep abreast of public interest and opinion, raise the quality of services, and promote legislative efficiency. To help support an effective legislature based on knowledge and information, the 25-person Information Technology Department must work to provide comprehensive information planning, an environment that safeguards information with the most advanced security tools, and innovative, reliable information services. Legislators and their staffs used desktop, portable, and mobile computers that ran the Windows® XP operating system.

Much of the information exchanged at the Legislative Yuan is confidential, privileged, or sensitive, and security is a basic element of the legislature’s information architecture. The IT department issues users certificate authority and integrated circuit cards with EasyCard functionality. It uses advanced security tools, such as Information Security Management Systems, Security Operation Center, and Information Technology Infrastructure Library. The IT team updates virus codes frequently, uses virus walls in civilian networks to test the security of network equipment, and employs a security gateway to limit access to unsafe sites.

“Security is a main consideration for us,” says Chen Hsi-yang, Director of the Information Technology Department for the Legislative Yuan. “We hold eight or more information security training sessions each year, test e-mail alertness four times per year, and issue dispatches with guidance about information security every day.”

But the Legislative Yuan has a unique means of organization and operation that challenges the IT department’s ability to efficiently manage security, access, and system updates. The Legislative Yuan is not a vertically structured enterprise with centralized organization—each of the 113 legislative staffs operates in parallel. The IT department helps manage this complex organizational ecology by integrating administrative and operations support systems and decision-making systems into a Web-based portal.

Legislators and staff rely on the Internet and e-mail, inside and outside the legislature’s information systems, making the systems vulnerable to constantly changing security threats and risking the potential exposure of critical information. And because each legislative staff operates independently, the IT department could not effectively incorporate a centralized management technology like the Active Directory® service to support security efforts. And system access that granted users administrator privileges complicated the situation by creating more work for system administrators. Users sometimes inadvertently deleted system configurations, ran inappropriate programs, and installed applications from unknown and potentially malicious sources.

Although Windows XP users could set their workstations to hibernation mode to reduce energy consumption, power-saving modes often caused slow system startup. So users would leave their computers on when they left the office, actually increasing energy waste.

Looking for more efficient ways to avoid the exposure of confidential information, prevent unsafe system changes, and better manage power consumption, the Legislative Yuan wanted to update its information system to promote unified security management, control and manage user access, and save energy while maintaining user convenience. It wanted an update it could deploy quickly and accurately, while maintaining compatibility with existing system applications.

Solution

In 2007, after evaluating the strategic and economic value of the Windows Vista® operating system using the Windows Vista Business Value Assessment, the Legislative Yuan worked with Microsoft and Systex Corporation to upgrade its personal computers to Windows Vista.

Security is a main consideration for us. We hold eight or more information security training sessions each year, test e-mail alertness four times per year, and issue dispatches with guidance about information security every day. Chen Hsi-yang Director of Information Technology, Legislative Yuan

To provide thorough and early support for users, the IT department used specialized tools to assess, plan, and manage the upgrade. It used the Microsoft® Assessment and Planning Toolkit to determine an efficient and appropriate upgrade path, and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to help deploy Windows Vista in the desktop and service environment.

In addition to software installed by users, the IT department manages more than 50 open application systems, yet largely avoids application compatibility issues. Initially, the IT department manually tested individual programs one by one, a time-consuming process that did not consistently confirm 100 percent compatibility. Working with Systex, the Legislative Yuan used the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.0 to test applications without skipping over programs and check the compatibility of the drivers for more than 100 devices, including scanners, webcams, modems, and 60 different printer models. Because many of the applications that legislators and their staffs use are Web-based, the Legislative Yuan used the Microsoft Application Virtualization virtual tool suite in the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack to resolve many application compatibility issues.

Following the compatibility and peripheral equipment testing, the Legislative Yuan upgraded computers for the IT department, maintenance employees, and some legislative and administrative users to Windows Vista Enterprise and Microsoft Office Professional 2007. Users had positive experiences with the new operating system almost immediately.

The Legislative Yuan intended to update more workstations during routine equipment replacements during the legislative recess in August 2008 and anticipates having Windows Vista deployed on approximately 1,100 personal computers before the end of 2008. By 2012, the Legislative Yuan will make Windows Vista its standard desktop computer operating system.

The Legislative Yuan greatly enhanced security for individual machines with Windows BitLocker™ Drive Encryption technology in Windows Vista. With Windows BitLocker, legislators and staff can use portable computers and mobile devices without worrying that sensitive information could be exposed, even if the physical machine is lost or stolen.

With Windows User Access Control (UAC), the IT department provides user access while limiting privileges. If a user engages in high-risk activities, UAC issues a warning so that system administrators can take actions to avoid the exposure of information or damage to other systems through the network. In the enhanced sleep mode in Windows Vista, users can see the status and configuration of the power supply and choose whether to store system information on the hard disk or in the memory. The IT department uses Group Policy settings to designate times for computers to switch to standby, hibernate, sleep mode, or even to shut down.

Throughout the upgrade, Microsoft and Systex provided comprehensive support, training, assistance, and answers through FAQ sheets, educational films, and online training courses. They helped the Legislative Yuan perform energy-saving, security, stability, and efficiency evaluations. “When there was a solution they told us, and when there wasn’t a solution they found one,” says Chen.

Benefits

By deploying Windows Vista, the Legislative Yuan provides comprehensive information services in an environment of security and high efficiency, while streamlining parliamentary procedures and saving energy. The Legislative Yuan can now prevent unauthorized program downloads or configuration changes, reducing the risk of information exposure. The legislature managed the upgrade quickly and efficiently, and avoided significant issues with application or driver compatibility.

“With Windows Vista, we’re using human resources efficiently and being environmentally responsible,” says Chen. “We’ve simplified our administrative processes and enhanced productivity.”

 

Enhancing Security

By using Windows BitLocker and UAC, the Legislative Yuan built more complete safeguards for system operations and information security. It can help protect confidential information on portable computers, even in the event of loss or theft, so legislators and staff can work remotely without risking sensitive information. By providing an extra layer of protection to prevent unsafe system changes, the Legislative Yuan has enhanced security and mitigated the lack of centralized access management.

With Microsoft evaluation and deployment tools we not only saved a lot of time by not having to check things manually, but we greatly increased accuracy and sped up the deployment schedule. Chen Hsi-yang, Director of Information Technology, Legislative Yuan

Ensuring System Compatibility

The Legislative Yuan upgraded to Windows Vista with few challenges by using Microsoft evaluation and deployment tools. It might have taken the IT department several months to complete the application compatibility testing manually; with ACT 5.0, it completed testing in a few weeks. All of the application systems that the Legislative Yuan identified as incompatible with Windows Vista were modified quickly, and within one month of launching the update, users could operate all commonly-used application systems effortlessly.

Peripheral devices like printers, scanners, and modems can have an enormous impact on users’ productivity. During parliamentary processes there is often little time to waste—pressure can be intense, and consequences high. During these periods, legislators and their staffs can have an extremely low tolerance for inconvenience. But with ACT 5.0, the IT department checked the compatibility between drivers and Windows Vista very quickly and thoroughly, avoiding productivity delays. “With Microsoft evaluation and deployment tools, we not only saved a lot of time by not having to check things manually, but we greatly increased accuracy and sped up the deployment schedule,” says Chen.

Improving Resource Management and Energy Saving

The Legislative Yuan is using energy-management features in Windows Vista to meet its energy-saving objectives without sacrificing user convenience. Because the new sleep mode in Windows Vista is more flexible, users are more willing to implement these processes. And with detailed Group Policy settings that automatically switch designated machines to energy-saving modes, system administrators can better manage power consumption.

Upgrading Easily

The Legislative Yuan can run Windows Vista on almost any new desktop, portable, or mobile computer on the market. So it can upgrade to Windows Vista without replacing old workstations or purchasing new computers and other equipment, which saves money.

“Security and energy conservation are important issues today, and Windows Vista satisfies our requirements in these areas,” says Chen. “We definitely don’t hesitate when something is right. We put it into place and implemented it on schedule.”

Windows Vista

Windows Vista can help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to find and use information more effectively. You will be able to support your mobile work force with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies to enhance corporate IT security, data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows Vista, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsvista

 

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about Systex Corporation products and services, visit the Web site at:
www.systex.com

For more information about Legislative Yuan of Taiwan, visit the Web site at:
www.ly.gov.tw/ly