NOVEMBER 27, 2007 -- France's Department of National Defence (the SGDN) announces the launch of ISIS, a highly secure government Intranet rolled out by Orange Business Services, France Telecom Group's (search for France Telecom) business services division.
The SGDN is the French prime minister's department in charge of coordinating state action in terms of defence and national security. ISIS will provide the resources to share classified defence information in real time and to prepare and manage government action in crisis or emergency situations.
The ISIS network was developed for government departments, including cabinet, ministries, top defence and security services, and operations centres. It has been rolled out over 10 sites to date covering the Elysée Palace, Matignon, and the ministries for Amenities, Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Health, and Defence.
The SGDN chose Orange Business Services to develop and install this secure inter-ministerial network based on its expertise in providing secure electronic communications services, FT says.
The ISIS network offers access to an array of services:
- a portal for consulting and enriching a documentary base containing sensitive and classified information in real time
- a common working area, accessible from any workstation on the ISIS network (using a personal authentication card) and containing personal and shared documents
- an inter-ministerial crisis directory and secure email for sending and receiving messages and attachments
- the option of an information-sharing space specifically for crisis management, offering the publication of news and alerts, a document-sharing file, and a discussion forum
- 24/7 user support to guarantee complete service continuity.
By offering a paperless or medium-free solution to the circulation of classified information, ISIS will boost governments' responsiveness and speed in dealing with crisis or emergency situations, France Telecom asserts. Orange Business Services set up the network and the related services in response to the very high demands required to manage defence secrecy and for the handling of crisis situations by the government.
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