In records management, transparency is often overlooked as a success factor, yet it is a critical and necessary ingredient in any effective records management program. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) itself stresses the importance of transparency. Laurence Brewer, the NARA’s Chief Records Officer, explicitly told Federal News Network, “Our goal … is [...]

The majority of data breaches and malware attacks occur as a result of vulnerabilities that are patchable - and thus potentially preventable. Vulnerability scanning is the solution. But what is vulnerability scanning? How does it work, and is it really worth the investment? Click on the this link or the image below to view and [...]

As a rank and file employee, you may not spend a lot of time worrying about the well-being of your agency, but you should. Like it or not, your fortunes and the fortunes of the agency you work for are inextricably intertwined, and a change in one will likely lead to a change in the [...]

With telecommuting quickly becoming the norm and millions of employees working out of their own homes, there has been a disconnect between agencies and their workers. Many of those new telecommuters do not know when, or how, to reach out for support, and that has created customer service problems, serious bottlenecks and a huge loss [...]

With the COVID-19 pandemic, federal agencies found that the only way to keep production up was to let employees work from home. While this workforce keeps production and public services flowing, it adds considerable cybersecurity risks to the organization and its private data. With an at-home workforce, users work on their own network and devices [...]

Previously, we wrote about the risks created by the ambitious deadline set by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for federal agencies to convert to (mostly) all electronic records management by the end of 2022. One risk we did not mention in that article: the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 started like any other year, [...]

With the M-19-21 memorandum issued in June 2019, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) put federal agencies on notice: by 2022, they must be managing all permanent records in electronic format, with metadata, and they must be managing all temporary records in electronic format or storing them in approved commercial records storage facilities. [...]

The United States government is committed to a digital future. That’s why the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has set ambitious digitization objectives for federal agencies, for example. As the federal government steadily moves toward those goals, it might be worth taking a step back and understanding where the U.S. government’s digital mandates [...]

Effective records management is a challenging task. Records managers often have to balance a complex array of logistical, budgeting, operational, and legal requirements. Ideally, electronic records management (ERM) systems should help. They can automate many tasks, speed up the records management process, and increase overall accuracy. The result is a bounty of benefits: cost savings, [...]

When faced with legal or regulatory action, government agencies and other organizations may find themselves fielding information requests in preparation for an audit or litigation. This process is called discovery. It’s when the parties involved in a legal or regulatory matter try to find and review relevant documents that may serve as evidence in the [...]