CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF E-GOVERNMENT DEPENDENCY MATURITY ASSESSMENT MODEL

Abstract

E-government solutions globally are removing the barriers of time and location while reducing the cost of governance. Nevertheless, they are laden with vulnerabilities that are potentially exploitable by cyber threat actors. Cyberattacks on e-government platforms have the potential for monumental consequences due to the criticality of government digital assets and the possibility of cascaded effects.  However, current research mainly assesses the availability of online services to stakeholders. It does not evaluate how much government enterprises depend on these e-services. Additionally, it overlooks the link between this dependency and the potential impact on government digital assets during cyberattacks. Consequently, this article presents a conceptual design of an E-Government Dependency Maturity Assessment Model to address this gap.  The model has the potential to calculate the E-Government Dependency Maturity Index (EDMI). This index is a composite metric that reflects the extent to which an organization relies on e-government services. Consequently, it also indicates the organization's level of cybersecurity risk exposure.