Adobe improves government security
Adobe improves government security
The Australian Government has signed a contract with Adobe Systems to use PDFs as a more secure way of distributing electronic documents between government departments and agencies.
The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) chose Adobe Acrobat Elements 6.0 because it provides users with the ability to remove metadata from electronic document to save against security concerns and possible embarrassments.
One recent example being the recent gaffe made by the Labor party, when a Word document was sent out containing track changes to an important speech made by Mark Latham.
It revealed the deletion of wording on policies which were taken out presumably because they painted a poor image of the party. The document also revealed inserts by other Labor party politicians, which made the speech seem less authentic.
The Australian Government Chief Information Officer, John Grant said that this deal with Adobe will further strengthen the government's capacity to provide secure communications between government, business, industry and the general public.
Peter Doolan, of Adobe's government and enterprise department said. "This contract reveals a strong show of faith in the PDF document as a final form document. The government wanted to use it for many reasons, including security, storage purposes and accessibility.
"The PDF prevents unwanted comments travelling with the documents, it takes up less memory when saved, providing more storage space for other documents and it can be read by the visually impaired, because of the magnifying option. It can also be used across all platforms on every device, including Mac computers."
The agreement allows the government to buy the Adobe product at a very competitive price it is the first time Adobe has entered into an agreement with the government.
It aims to offer a number of other products to the government eventually under this agreement too.
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