Hardware
The internet is prone to attacks by people who spread virus or people who hack accounts for various reasons. Government Internet accounts are more exposed to these attacks. The government should secure its online accounts or websites from virus or hacking attacks in order not to experience disruption in their service delivery.
The Internet-borne computer viruses can be seen as a warning of even more dangerous viruses that could infect public sector computer systems. Loss and misuse of information, as well as widespread service disruption, are among the real threats of over-reliance on new technologies to conduct government’s information work. (Edes, 2000)
There was a series of hacking incidents of Philippine government websites that happened when this study was being conducted. The hacking incidents were attributed to online protest movements which are becoming more prevalent. There are people who have seen the power of online interaction that they bring their protests in the internet by defacing government websites to send a message to the government and to the citizens. According to Ms. Ten Mariano, there were several attempts to hack the Social Media accounts and websites managed by the PCOO New Media, but the hackers remained unsuccessful. For security reasons, this study cannot disclose the security measures employed by PCOO New Media. Investing on hardware support to ensure security of internet data is important according to Ms. Ten Mariano. Investments on quality host servers and security software should be given priority by an E-Government agency because public data is at risk once hackers and virus breach into government Internet accounts or websites.
Aside from security, E-Government agencies should invest on equipment that could ensure strong, fast, and uninterrupted connectivity. The use of Social Media is advantageous due to availability of up-to-date data anytime, anywhere. Constant problems with internet connectivity defeat the purpose of using Social Media as a communication and information exchange platform. In the case of PCOO New Media, staff members are always provided with portable wi-fi modems to ensure constant connectivity anywhere they go.
Internet connection speed of PCOO New Media is still limited and is still dependent on the capacity of private Internet Service Providers (ISP) the agency subscribes to. This set-up will remain until government has established its capacity to provide for its own reliable Internet connection.