Risk Management for IT Systems

The operation of the Land Registry is highly automated with the support of a number of information technology (IT) systems, including the Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS) and an office automation system for e-mail communication and shared file storage. To ensure the smooth and uninterrupted operation of our business which is now dependent upon the continual availability of the IT systems, we have adopted measures to mitigate the risk of malfunction of our IT systems.

With regard to IRIS, a disaster recovery (DR) system is always standing by to provide backup to the primary IRIS system. In the unfortunate event of disasters rendering the primary system unavailable for an extended period of time, the DR system will take over and continue to provide IRIS services to internal as well as external users. DR drill is conducted once a year to ascertain the proper functioning of the DR system and the associated procedures. Furthermore, our computer Data Centre will be relocated to a permanent government premises in 2007/08. The new site will offer additional protection to the continual availability of IRIS and our other IT systems in that backup power supply is available therein.

Besides DR arrangement, daily check is performed on the IRIS before start of business to ascertain that the system functions properly and is ready to provide services to our customers and internal staff.

With regard to the office automation system, in addition to the backup arrangement currently in place, we will introduce extra backup measures in 2007/08 to further enhance the resilience of the system.

We attach great importance to ensure that information security of our IT systems in the Land Registry are properly protected in accordance with government's IT security policy and guidelines. Regular security audits are performed by independent auditors to review our IT security protection measures.