Future Proof – Protecting our digital future

Each year, State Records sends a newsletter to all NSW public sector Chief Executives. The newsletter, called ‘Future Proof,’  concisely brings key issues and challenges relating to digital recordkeeping to the attention of Chief Executives.

The 2011 Future Proof newsletter was distributed to Chief Executives in late November.

The purpose of this year’s issue is to inform Chief Executives about risks to information longevity. These can initially be ‘hidden’ risks but may have serious consequences.

For example:

• Contracts with service providers often do not include clauses about the management and transfer of information
• Cloud computing arrangements may not protect the longevity of the data or its transfer back to the organisation at the end of contracts
• Business systems often fail to protect records within them and when they are decommissioned legacy data is not well managed.

All of these scenarios can lead to information loss.

The newsletter also seeks to provide, at a high level, some key ways to be strategic with information in order to mitigate these risks. More detailed information about addressing particular areas of risk (e.g. cloud computing) is available on our website.