How to Protect Government Data Across Case Management Systems: A Decision-Maker's Guide

Public sector case management often involves sensitive personal information, from health records to legal case files, so ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data is paramount.

An effective strategy combines strict access controls, robust encryption, and comprehensive governance measures – often drawing on frameworks like the “Five Safes” (safe projects, safe people, safe settings, safe data, safe outputs) to assess and manage data sharing risks.

The challenge for C-suite leaders: How do you protect this data while modernising services, scaling operations, and meeting rising citizen expectations for digital government?

The answer lies in a Secure-by-Design approach, embedding security and privacy into every layer of your case management infrastructure. This guide outlines five strategic pillars that decision-makers must prioritise to build resilient, compliant, and trustworthy case management systems.

1. Implement Intelligence-Driven Access Controls

Controlling who can access what data is the first line of defence. Government agencies should adopt the principle of least privilege, ensuring each user (whether administrator, caseworker, manager, or contractor) has only the minimum access necessary for their role. This often starts with traditional Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), but modern systems are moving toward Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) for finer granularity. Unlike RBAC, which assigns permissions by static roles, ABAC evaluates user attributes (department, clearance level, location, time of access, etc.) to make dynamic access decisions.

This offers more fine-grained and context-aware permissions – ABAC can enforce multi-dimensional rules (for example, allowing access only from certain locations or during work hours) that RBAC alone cannot. By combining RBAC with ABAC, government case management systems can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorised data access.

Strategic Actions:

• Mandate Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) across all users—this single measure blocks the vast majority of credential-based attacks
• Deploy Privileged Access Workstations (PAWs) for system administrators to isolate high-risk activities
• Implement the principle of least privilege: users access only the data essential for their specific role

2. Encrypt Everything: Data at Rest and in Transit

Another critical layer is protecting data itself, both when it’s stored and when it’s moving between systems.

Encryption is your last line of defence. Government-grade systems require:

• AES-256 encryption for stored data (databases, backups, archives)
• TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3 protocols for data moving across networks
• Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) or secure key vaults for managing encryption keys

Beyond encryption, embrace data minimisation. Less data means less exposure. A comprehensive approach to data security combines technical controls with smart data governance practices.

Strategic Actions:

• • Conduct a data inventory: collecting and retaining only the minimum personal data needed for a given case purpose.
  • Implement automated retention policies to delete unnecessary data
  • Use pseudonymisation for analytics and reporting—replace personal identifiers with codes
  • Deploy anonymisation when sharing data for research or cross-agency collaboration

For example, if case data needs to be used for a research project or cross-agency analysis, personal details can be anonymised so that individuals are not identifiable. This way, even if the analysis dataset were leaked, it wouldn’t directly expose citizen identities.

Implementing strong anonymisation or de-identification techniques (and assessing re-identification risk carefully) is especially vital when dealing with open data or inter-agency data sharing in the public sector.

3. Build Secure-by-Design System Architecture

Technical architecture plays a huge role in data protection. A Secure by Design approach means building security considerations into the system from the ground up, rather than as an afterthought. In practice, this involves adopting security architecture principles and threat modelling during the case management system’s development. These might include measures like separate network zones for sensitive databases, encrypted databases, and restricted administrator access.

Network security is another architectural layer: government case management platforms should use firewalls and segmentation to separate the case management network from less secure networks. Any integration with external systems or cloud services must go through secure APIs or gateways with proper authentication, throttling, and monitoring to prevent intrusion. Additionally, endpoints (user devices) accessing the case system should be secured and managed. For example, ensuring all laptops have up-to-date security patches, antivirus, and possibly using device attestation to block untrusted devices.

No system is ever 100% bug-free, so vulnerability management is key. Agencies should conduct regular security assessments, such as vulnerability scans and penetration testing, to identify weaknesses before attackers do. By designing the system to be secure from the start, and continuously testing its resilience, public sector organisations can stay a step ahead of evolving threats.

4. Establish Robust Governance and Compliance Frameworks

Technology alone is not enough; good governance ensures policies and processes keep data protected and used responsibly

Effective data governance requires:

Data Classification:

Staff should be trained to handle data according to its classification. Highly sensitive case files (e.g. involving vulnerable individuals or national security concerns) might warrant extra safeguards such as encryption with tighter key access, or storage in segregated systems.

Finworks’ case management platform, for instance, is certified up to OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE data handling, indicating it meets government security standards for sensitive information.

Clear Accountability:

Every major dataset or case management repository should have a designated data owner responsible for its security and compliance. This person ensures that access reviews are done regularly, that data quality and protection standards are maintained, and acts as a point of contact for any issues.

Comprehensive Audit Trails:

Case management systems must log who accessed or changed what data, providing a full audit trail. This not only deters internal misuse but is also invaluable for forensic analysis if an incident occurs. Modern case management solutions often come with robust reporting and audit capabilities to support this, enabling administrators to spot unusual access patterns or quickly compile compliance reports.

5. Invest in People: Training and Incident Response

The human factor is often the weakest link in security, which means ongoing training and awareness is essential:

Role-Specific Training:

All staff who handle case data, from front-line case officers to IT personnel, should receive regular training on data protection policies, phishing awareness, and secure handling of information. This training should be contextualised for government scenarios: for example, recognising a spear-phishing email that pretends to be about a case file, or knowing how to spot and report signs of a malware infection on their device. By fostering a culture of security awareness, organisations reduce the likelihood of accidental breaches (such as emailing data to the wrong address or clicking malicious links) and empower employees to act as an additional line of defence.

Incident Response Planning:

Hope is not a strategy. Every organisation needs a documented, tested incident response plan covering:

Ultimately, training and incident planning ensure that even if a security control fails, the organisation can respond effectively and maintain public confidence.

Conclusion: A Secure and Trusted Case Management Environment

Protecting government data in case management is an ongoing journey, not a one-time project. When data is well-governed and secure, teams can confidently scale services and innovate (for example, adopting cloud or AI tools) without compromising security or privacy. In turn, citizens retain trust that their sensitive information is handled with the utmost care.

Achieving all the above can sound daunting, but this is exactly where Finworks can help. Finworks has over 15 years of experience delivering secure, governed case management and workflow systems to public sector clients. Our Finworks Case Management Platform is a low-code solution built with security at its core, featuring full role-based permission controls and audit trails, and compliant up to OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE data handling. Finworks’ platform not only streamlines complex case processes by 30% but also helps government organisations stay ahead of emerging security threats with continuous updates and best-practice safeguards.

If you’re looking to modernise your case management while scaling services securely, Finworks is your trusted partner. Contact Finworks today to discover how our secure case management solutions can help your organisation protect citizen data, ensure compliance, and deliver better public services.