Towards a Secure Maturity Model for Protecting e-Government Services in Tanzania: A Stakeholders View Mohamed D. Waziri 1 and Zaipuna O. Yonah 2 The Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) School of Computational and Communication Science and Engineering P. O. Box 447, Arusha, Tanzania Email: {dewam 1 , zaipuna.yonah 2 }@nm-aist.ac.tz Abstract E-Government Maturity Models (eGMMs) are widely used as a tool for guiding the development and implementation of e-Government services. The government of Tanzania recognizes that e-Government services can accelerate the achievement of a sustainable social and economic development in the country. However, despite the good benefits provided by e- Government services, information security and privacy are the most significant obstacles for e-Government services adoption. Unfortunately, very few designs of e- GMMs have considered security as a specific issue. However, even these few security responsive models consider security mostly at the transaction stage. Responding to this security weakness of eGMMs, in our earlier work a holistic secure e-Government maturity model that includes security layers consisting of technical and non-technical security related aspects in each of its four maturity stages was developed, but the model was not yet tested and evaluated. This paper reports on the tests and the validation of the proposed secure model. The applied evaluation criteria were: simplicity, reliability, accessibility and usability, dynamics and flexibility, applicability, coverage and completeness, and compliance with legal aspects. Primary data were collected from five Tanzanian public organization using questionnaires. The collected data were processed and analyzed using the SPSS. The overall results show that the model designs meet all required specifications to successfully secure e- Government services, and the model was accepted by majority of the respondents at different organizational levels (strategic, tactical, and operational). Keywords: e-Government, e-Government services, e- Government maturity model, information security,security layer 1. Introduction With the recent advancements of Internet technologies, majority of governments around the world have adopted Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to provide services towards its agencies, businesses and citizens more efficiently and effectively. In general, e-Government refers to the use of ICTs by government organizations to provide and enhance delivery of public services. In the Tanzanian context, e-Government is about delivering quality services to the public through technology [1]. It involves using ICTs to support processes within the government as well as for the delivery of services to beneficiaries, such as citizens, businesses and agencies. In practice, e-Government websites or portals provide governments the best opportunities to improve their administrative processes and procedures, to connect to their citizens effectively as well as to build and bond interactively with its agencies and businesses [2]. Tanzania is one of many developing countries with multiple e-Government initiatives being introduced to support poverty reduction, and sustain good governance, as demonstrated by recent technology implementations and reported in government strategy documents [3]. The government of Tanzania recognizes that through e-Government services a sustainable social and economic development in the country is achievable. As a result, the Government has increased the range and quality of the services provided by public sector [1]. The Government also recognizes the importance of e-Government in promoting and improving efficiency in public services delivery and strengthening citizen’s participation and engagement. However, despite the good benefits provided by e-Government services, a number of obstacles exist that hinder achieving these desired benefits. Specifically, information security and privacy are among the most significant obstacles faced when implementing e-Government initiatives [4]. As a result, there are increasing concerns about the reliability and security of the developed e- Government services. These concerns have flagged the need to guarantee and to ensure that services are provided to customers with the maximum possible security, with guaranteed privacy [5]. The current trend is that citizens prefer to use traditional ways rather than using an unsecured e-Government service. Noted also is that citizens’ adoption of e- Government services plays an important role in the success of e-Government initiatives. Thus, low adoption, particularly by citizens, indicates inadequate utilization and rejection of the initiatives by the intended users, and this may lead into failure of e-Government initiatives [6]. Various researchers have proposed different methods and systems to provide security in e- ACSIJ Advances in Computer Science: an International Journal, Vol. 3, Issue 6, No.12 , November 2014 ISSN : 2322-5157 www.ACSIJ.org 29 Copyright (c) 2014 Advances in Computer Science: an International Journal. All Rights Reserved.