Trust challenges and issues of E-Government: E-Tax prospective

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Vol. 8 No. 6 September 2010 International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security

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(IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security,
Vol. 8, No. 7, October 2010

Trust challenges and issues of E-Government: E-Tax prospective

Dinara Berdykhanova Ali Dehghantanha Andy Seddon
Asia Pacific University College of Asia Pacific University College of Asia Pacific University College of
Technology and Innovation Technology and Innovation Technology and Innovation
Technology Park Malaysia Technology Park Malaysia Technology Park Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Kualalumpor- Malaysia Kualalumpor- Malaysia
dinara_gsm@mail.ru ali_dehqan@ucti.edu.my Andy@ucti.edu.my

Abstract— this paper discusses trust issues and individuals and organizations has brought new term –e-
challenges have been encountered by e-government government or electronic government [2].
developers during the process of adoption of online E-government can be defined as the use of primarily
public services. Despite of the apparent benefits as online Internet-based information technology to enhance the
services’ immediacy and saving costs, the rate of accountability and performance of government activities.
adoption of e-government is globally below experts’ These activities include government‘s activities execution,
expectations. A concern about e-government adoption is especially services delivery, access to government
extended to trust issues which are inhibiting a citizen’s information and processes; and citizens and organizations
acceptance of online public sector services or participation in the government [2].
engagement with e-government initiates. A citizen’s Today E-Government offers a number of potential
decision to use online systems is influenced by their benefits to citizens. It gives citizens more control on how
willingness to trust the environment and to the agency is and when they interact with the government. Instead of
involved. Trust makes citizens comfortable sharing visiting a department at a particular location or calling the
personal information and making online government government personnel at a particular time, citizens can
transaction. Therefore, trust is a significant notion that choose to receive these services at the time and place of
should be critically investigated in context of different E- their choice [1]. As the result, various e-government
Taxation models as part of E-Government initiatives. initiatives have been taken with the objective to build
This research is proposing the implementation of services focused on citizens‘ needs and to provide more
Trusted Platform Module as a solution for achieving the accessibility of government services to citizens [3]. In other
high level of citizens’ trust in e-taxation. words, the e-government can offer public service a truly
standard, impersonal, efficient, and convenient manner for
Keywords:E-Gavernment, E-Taxation, Trust, Secutiry, both service provider (the government) and service recipient
Trusted Platform Module. (the citizens). In some cases a government agency can also
be a service recipient of the e-government service.
In economic terms, the ability of citizens to access
I. INTRODUCTION government services at anytime, anywhere helps to mitigate
the transaction costs inherent in all types of government
The phenomenon of the Internet has brought a services [4]. In particular, on-line taxation is an important
transformational effect on the society. It has opened a new function of e-government since it is highly related to the life
medium of communication for individuals and businesses of citizens [5].
and provided opportunities to communicate and get
Electronic tax filing systems [6] are an e-government
information in an entirely different way. The boosted usage
application which spreading rapidly all over the world.
of the Internet was initially due to private sector interests, but
governments across the globe are now becoming part of this Those systems are particularly favorable for governments
revolution. Governments worldwide have been making because they avoid many of the mistakes taxpayers make in
significant attempts to make their services and information manual filings, and they help to prevent tax evasion by data
available on the Internet [1]. matching. The data warehouses developed using electronic
The implementation of information technologies, tax filings allows tax inspectors to analyze declarations
particularly using Internet to improve the efficiency and more thoroughly, and enable policy makers to develop fairer
effectiveness of internal government operations, and more effective tax policies.
communications with citizens, and transactions with both Due to factor that the taxes are crucial source of the
budget revenue, the relationships between taxation and

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(IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security,
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technological developments have always been interactive, influence on user willingness to engage in online exchanges
dynamic and complex. For the government taxation system of money and personal sensitive information.
is one of the most e-government applications where Later, the new construct - ―perceived credibility‖ has
information technologies are highly penetrated [7]. been proposed to add to TAM to enhance the understanding
The growing body of research recently presented that of an individual‘s acceptance behavior of electronic tax-
trust as essential element of successful e-government filing systems [12].
adoption process. It was found that lack of trust with respect The lack of ―perceived credibility‖ [13] is manifested
to financial security and information qualities were among in people‘s concerns that the electronic tax-filing system
the barriers for a high level of adoption [9]. will transfer their personal tax return information to the third
This paper is organized as follows. The next part will parties without their knowledge or permission. Therefore,
present understanding of ―trust‖ in the e-government perceived fears of divulging personal information and users‘
context, trust and e-taxation relationship and critical feelings of insecurity provide unique challenges to find
analysis of e-taxation models. The third part will propose ways in which to develop users‘ perceived credibility of
solution addressing for the identified problems in e-taxation electronic tax-filing systems.
models. The following proposed components which help to
measure of e-government success in Sweden and citizen
II. LITERATURE REVIEW: TRUST AND E-TAXATION satisfaction: e-government system quality, information
CONTEXT quality, e-service quality, perceived usefulness, perceived
ease of use, and citizen trust [3]. Moreover, it was stated
Trust has been subject of researches in different citizens trust becomes one of the key components in
areas, namely: technological, social, institutional, enabling citizens to be willing to receive information and
philosophical, behavioral, psychological, organizational, provide information back to the e-government system. In the
economic, e-commerce and managerial [10]. The literature government e-tax filing service, trust is defined as specific
also identifies trust as an essential element of a relationship beliefs dealing with integrity, benevolence, competence, and
when uncertainty, or risk, is present. Researchers are just predictability of government e-service delivery [3].
beginning to empirically explore the role of trust in the e- Trust is strongly associated with satisfaction with the
government adoption [8]. Trust in the e-government is e-government services, and satisfaction is related to
therefore composed of the traditional view of trust in a citizens‘ perceptions about the service, such as the reliability
specific entity – government, as well as trust in the of information provided by the government, the
reliability of the enabling technology [11]. convenience of the service, etc. [14].
Despite the governments‘ growing investment in Trust is the expected outcome of e-government
electronic services, citizens are still more likely to use service delivery [15]. An absence of trust could be the
traditional methods, e.g., phone calls or in-person visits, reason for poor performance of e-government systems, and
than the Web to interact with the government [11]. by improving service quality, trust can be restored. In other
Therefore, the investigation of trust in the e-government is words, citizens must believe government agencies possess
significant contribution in enabling cooperative behavior. the astuteness and technical resources necessary to
Since the e-government applications and services more implement and secure these systems [8].
trustworthy, the higher level of citizens‘ engagement in Users are concerned about the level of security
public online services [1]. present when providing sensitive information on-line and
In e-taxation system trust is most crucial element of will perform transactions only when they develop a certain
relationships, because during online transactions the level of trust [3].
citizens‘ vulnerable and private data are involved [12]. The link between security and trust has been studied
Internet tax filing was launched in Taiwan by the tax in a number of researches. [10]. Therefore, citizens can trust
agency in 1998. Despite all the efforts aimed at developing in e-taxation system only when they perceive that their
better and easier electronic tax-filing systems, these tax- personal data are secured during online transactions.
filing systems remained unnoticed by the public or were According to Brazil case study with the wide spreading of
seriously underused in spite of their availability [12]. To the e-taxation technology the question about security of
analyze citizens‘ behavior [13] and [12] applied Technology online transactions was emerged. This item has been
Acceptance Model (TAM) as theoretical ground with the considered the "Achilles' heel" of the process, especially in
two major determinants: perceived usefulness and perceived the opinion of Tax Administrators at the developed
ease of use of that system. In their research it been stated countries [16].
state that TAM‘s fundamental constructs do not fully reflect The security issues have found in other countries as
the specific influences of technological and usage-context one of the main barrier to deep dissemination of public e-
factors that may alter the acceptance of the users. Moreover, services of e-government. Security refers to the protection
their work has been stated that term as ―trust‖ has a striking of information or systems from unsanctioned intrusions or

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(IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security,
Vol. 8, No. 7, October 2010

outflows. Fear of a lack of security is one of the factors that trust issues, whereas trust challenges impede further
have been identified in most studies as affecting the growth dissemination of public online service. On the other hand,
and development of information systems [16]. Therefore, citizens‘ trust is highly correlated with security of data while
users‘ perception of the extent to which electronic tax-filing using e-taxation system applications. The lack of security of
systems are capable of ensuring that transactions are citizens‘ transactions can lead to refusal of interaction with
conducted without any breach of security is an important e-government initiatives.
consideration that might affect the use of the electronic tax-
filing systems. III. TRUSTED PLATFORM MODULE AS A TOOL TO
Observation of e-taxation system in USA [17] RETAIN CITIZENS‘ TRUST
revealed significant obstacles to offering online tax services.
The survey has shown that the percent of governments Having identified the importance of raising
citing the issues of security which could reflect their interest awareness and providing knowledge about security
in developing online transaction systems in USA. measurements to citizens, as a major factor in developing
Investigation of e-tax filing system in Japan by [18] trust, this part of the paper will focus on new data security
has shown citizens‘ concerns about that national tax data technologies and how those technologies can be used in a
contain sensitive personal and financial information. Any way which will enable citizens‘ trust while taking part in the
security breach will have negative impacts on the credibility e-government transactions.
of tax administration and public information privacy rights. February 2001 witnessed a major leap forward in the
Taxpayers are very sensitive when they are filing field of computer security with the publication of an
their tax returns, since they need to provide a great deal of innovative industry specification for "trusted platforms."
personal information. If they believe the tax authority is not This heralded a new era in significantly higher security for
opportunistic, then they will feel comfortable using this electronic commerce and electronic interaction than
online service [18]. currently exists. What's the difference between a "platform"
Trust in online services can be affected by new and a "trusted platform"? A platform is any computing
vulnerabilities and risks. While there are very few reliable device—a PC, server, mobile phone, or any appliance
statistics, all experts agree that direct and indirect costs of capable of computing and communicating electronically
on-line crimes such as break-ins, defacing of web sites, with other platforms. A Trusted Platform is one containing a
spreading of viruses and Trojan horses, and denial of service hardware-based subsystem devoted to maintain trust and
attacks are substantial. Moreover, the impact of a concerted security between machines. This industry standard in trusted
and deliberate attack on our digital society by highly platforms is supported by a broad spectrum of companies
motivated opponents is a serious concern [19]. including HP, Compaq, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, and many
In Australia for instance [20], launching of E-tax in others. Together, they form the Trusted Computing Platform
project was successful, but not as expected. The efficiency Alliance (TCPA) [22].
issues are also provoked by other threads. Along with the The TPM creates a hardware-based foundation of
massive growth in Internet commerce in Australia over the trust, enabling enterprises to implement, manage, and
last ten years there has been a corresponding boom in enforce a number of trusted cryptography, storage, integrity
Internet related crime, or cybercrime. management, attestation and other information security
Despite of tremendous security programs and capabilities Organizations in a number of vertical industries
applications the number of reported security alerts does already successfully utilize the TPM to manage full-disk
grow spectacularly and typically it increases by several per encryption, verify PC integrity, and safeguard data [23].
month [19]. Moreover, TPM is bridging the gaps of the current solutions
As the Internet and underlying networked technology of data security Table 1 [24].
has continued to develop and grow then so has the Table 1. Advantages of TPM over current security solutions
opportunity for illicit behavior. Utilizing digital networks
such as the Internet provides cyber criminals with a
simplified, cost effective and repeatable mean to conduct
rapid large scale attacks against global cyber community.
Using methods such as email and websites eliminates the
need for face-to face communication and provides the cyber
criminal with a level of anonymity that reduces the
perception of risk and also increases the appearance of
legitimacy to a potential victim [21].
Therefore, today, more and more countries exploring
e-government application to improve the access and
delivery of government services to citizens are facing with

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The benefits from Table 1 are proving that TPM is As the solution to meet the trust requirements while
reliable data security technology and implementing TPM in using public online services TPM technology for data
various e-government applications is suggested. Moreover, security was suggested. Low costs and security robustness
implementing TPM will provide robust and trustworthy make this approach more attractive security solution in
security [19]. At the same time the embedding this online services compare to other existing security
technology does not requires significant investments. At the technologies. Implementation of TPM in e-taxation system
time of this writing, secure operating systems use different will help to gain citizens trust and loyalty and will be
levels of hardware privilege to logically isolate programs conducted through several stages. The further direction of
and provide robust platform operation, including security the research is evaluation of reliability of TPM technology
functions. and citizens satisfaction with the level of trust.
As TPM was identified as a reliable technology for
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