Protected POINT from Home rolled out
The Protected POINT from Home (PPfH) was rolled out on May 26 to provide stronger protection to all Force members in accessing information on POINT (Police Intranet) at non-office environments.
* establish a secure connection between a user's local terminal and the Police Data Network. As a result, data browsed or downloaded by users will not be available to the public domain by peer-to-peer software during the PPfH session; and
* completely erase all data browsed, downloaded or edited during the PPfH session after logging out. This will prevent any data leakage incidents due to subsequent activation of peer-to-peer software or disposal of hard disk.
The new system not only provides stronger protection to users, but also enhances information accessibility to them. The new system allows Force members to access and read information previously withheld from POINT from Home (PfH), such as Personnel Notice at the Force NoticeBoard, via their private computers. It is expected that more applications at e-Services can be made accessible via this new platform in due course.
The new system is to be run in parallel with the existing PfH at the initial stage. When visiting the current PfH portal (https://portal.police.gov.hk), users may choose to log in PPfH or PfH.
Same as PfH, users are required to input their e-Services username and password for logging in PPfH. After logging in, users will be able to tell the difference at the first instance by the change in colour of the desktop (see picture below). A virtual environment, namely the Protected Workspace, will automatically be established in a user's local terminal. Users are allowed to save data from PPfH into two temporary folders, "Desktop" and "My documents", at their local terminal only. All data downloaded or edited during the PPfH session will be completely erased by the system automatically after logging out.
The system requirements for accessing PPfH include an Internet connection, an operating system of Windows XP/Vista/7 (32 bits), and a web browser of IE 6/7/8 or Firefox. Its compatibility with other systems will be further explored in due course.
Information Systems Wing will continue to conduct reviews and risk assessments on Force systems with a view to strengthening the information security infrastructure of the Force and enhancing protection for all Force members.
