Managing Web records is critical, NARA says.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: News, Trends & Analysis - National Archives and Records Administration

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is advising webmasters and records managers to reuse their IT system risk assessments to establish records management controls. NARA also recommends performing a risk mitigation to ensure the authenticity, integrity, and usefulness of agency information on their Web sites.

The importance of risk assessments and mitigation were a major part of new guidance NARA released in January. The document, almost seven years in the making, is a high-level guide to improve and standardize the management of agency, Web sites and online records, said Howard Lowell, director of NARA's modern records program.

"Managing Web records properly is essential to effective Web site operations, especially the mitigation of the risks an agency, faces by using the Web to carry out agency business," NARA noted in the guidance.

The NARA guidance is divided into three sections--general background, responsibilities, and requirements; managing Web records; and scheduling Web records--and each part tries to answer common questions from webmasters and records officers.

Agencies should conduct a risk assessment of their Web sites by evaluating certain factors such as records management threats, visibility, consequences of compromised records, and sensitivity of the records.

Once an agency has determined its Web site vulnerabilities, NARA recommends mitigating...