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Records Management in the News

The views represented in these articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, the Privacy Act Program, or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

THE SCOOP for July 24, 2008

• Disaster Recovery Planning Is Simpler, and Harder, Than Ever
  eWeek - July 17, 2008
  "Regulations and troubled times are forcing companies to take a harder and longer look at their disaster recovery systems; virtualization and computing in the cloud are helping to ease the burden."

• Forrester: Five storage strategies that will save you money
  ComputerWorld - July 21, 2008
  "Storage costs eat up at least 11% of IT hardware budgets, but there are plenty of ways to save money without sacrificing performance or security."

• Gmail Privacy Hole Shows User Names
  InformationWeek - July 16, 2008
  "Sharing a Google Calendar with another Gmail user can expose the first name and last name that the recipient of the shared calendar supplied to set up a Gmail account."

• Government, health care Web sites attacked
  Government Computer News - July 16, 2008
  "A scan of Web servers by Internet security company Finjan Inc. has found more than 1,000 legitimate Web sites that had been compromised by a new wave of attacks in recent weeks."

• The need to archive e-mail is a growing concern
  NetworkWorld - July 17, 2008
  "We found that 36% of decision-makers are more concerned about the need to archive e-mail today than they were 12 months ago. Similarly, 30% are more concerned about e-discovery issues than they were a year ago. Only 12% and 13% of decision makers are less concerned about e-mail archiving and e-discovery, respectively."

• Only Eight Percent of Americans are 'Very Confident' Their Personal Data is Safe
  Government Technology - July 16, 2008
  "Only an average of eight percent of Americans say they are very confident in the ability of U.S. retailers, government and banks to protect their personal information, according to a national survey commissioned by CA, Inc., and conducted by The Strategic Counsel."

• Printer dots raise privacy concerns
  USA Today - July 14, 2008
  "The affordability and growing popularity of color laser printers is raising concerns among civil liberties advocates that your privacy may not be worth the paper you're printing on. More manufacturers are outfitting greater numbers of laser printers with technology that leaves microscopic yellow dots on each printed page to identify the printer's serial number — and ultimately, you..."

• Study: Reform copyright law to save digital works
  Government Computer News - July 14, 2008
  "Although digital works are ubiquitous and easily duplicated, they are also ephemeral and at risk of disappearing unless preservation efforts begin soon after they are created, according to a study by the Library of Congress and three international partners."

THE SCOOP for July 16, 2008

• Businesses Falling Short of Privacy Laws
  Inc.com - July 7, 2008
  "A growing number of businesses are struggling with increasingly complex privacy laws and often falling short of compliance when it comes to safeguarding consumer data, a new survey finds."

• Could Google Monopolize Human Knowledge?
  ABC News - July 12, 2008
  "[S]ome observers have strong concerns about Google Book Search and how the collected thinking of human history will be accessed in the future."

• Court Chips Away at White House Secrecy
  Washington Post - July 12, 2008
  "A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the White House had prematurely appealed a decision by a federal judge last year that visitor logs are public records."

• Data recovery even without a building
  Western Michigan Business Review - July 10, 2008
  "Even before spring floods in Iowa grabbed national headlines, many businesses determined their data and telecom systems needed disaster recovery plans. Disaster recovery is fast becoming another service offering from the companies that provide I.T. services and Internet and telecom connections."

• Document Imaging Lives On In Government
  Government Technology - July 9, 2008
  "Although e-government continues to be a rising trend, the public sector remains reliant on paper. Document imaging systems, which, at its most basic, creates electronic copies of papers, remains a highly popular technology for integrating hard copies into the digital enterprise."

• Domestic spying quietly goes on
  Baltimore Sun - July 7, 2008
  "With Congress on the verge of outlining new parameters for National Security Agency eavesdropping between suspicious foreigners and Americans, lawmakers are leaving largely untouched a host of government programs that critics say involves far more domestic surveillance than the wiretaps they sought to remedy."

• Electronic Records Bill To Include Strong Privacy Protections
  CNN Money - July 10, 2008
  "Lawmakers crafting a bill to put peoples' health records in an electronic format will include privacy protections that they hope will be a model for a general privacy standard, a senior House Republican said Thursday."

• FDA tests electronic submissions from firms
  Federal Computer Week - July 11, 2008
  "The Food and Drug Administration has established a pilot program and draft guidance for drug companies to voluntarily submit registration information and their list of pharmaceutical products in an electronic format, the agency said in a draft guidance published today in the Federal Register."

• Finding a Disaster Recovery Solution That Won't Break the Bank
  Enterprise Storage Forum - July 8, 2008
  "A recent study by Aberdeen Group found that 34 percent of companies have yet to implement any kind of DR [disaster recovery] solution. Of the remaining 66 percent, 25 percent don't perform regular disaster plan tests. And when you get down into the SME sector...nearly half of those in the 100 to 1,000 employee category don't have a BC/DR plan in place."

• Google, Viacom now clashing over YouTube employee records
  CNET News - July 12, 2008
  "Viacom wants to know which videos YouTube employees have watched and uploaded to the site, and Google is refusing to provide that information, CNET News has learned."

• Government lags in providing public records to media, others
  Capitol Weekly - July 10, 2008
  "[A] recently completed study showed that 25 federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Securities and Exchange Commission, have made little progress in reducing their record backlog of FOIA requests, despite a 2006 directive from the White House to reduce delays."

• IBM Survey: Businesses Face Risks, Revenue Losses and Fines From Inability to Keep Track of Information
  CNN Money - July 7, 2008
  "IBM today unveiled the results of a cross-industry customer survey indicating that businesses need to better inventory their information to help reduce risk and derive more value from their business information."

• Improved Email Management - A Tightened Grip On Email Keeps Your Information Where It Belongs
  Processor - July 11, 2008
  "Proper email management is essential to avoid potential financial and legal troubles, yet according to a recent survey conducted by the AIIM's (Association for Information and Image Managemen's) Market Intelligence Group, only 49% of businesses can say with confidence that their electronic documents are accessible and accurate."

• Iowa's Tragic Lesson in Business Continuity
  CSO Online - July 7, 2008
  "For security administrator Deb Hale, the recent tornadoes and floods in Iowa hit close to home and provided a sobering lesson in business continuity."

• New Law Targets White House Record Keeping
  InternetNews.com - July 11, 2008
  "The Electronics Communications Preservation Act (H.R.5811) would require the National Archivist office to develop new regulations for storing electronic communications, oversee compliance and report to congressional committees on compliance activity."

• PDF Format Becomes ISO Standard
  Information Today - July 7, 2008
  "The Portable Document Format (PDF), one of the most commonly used formats for electronic documents, is now accessible as an ISO International Standard, ISO 32000-1."

• Privacy: Agencies Struggle to Redact Personal Data from Online Public Documents
  Government Technology - July 9, 2008
  "Numerous states offer Web access to public records... [which] frequently contain Social Security numbers (SSNs), mothers' maiden names, signatures, minors' names and other red meat for identity thieves and stalkers."

THE SCOOP for July 10, 2008

• Data breaches up, but not in government sector
  Government Computer News - July 1, 2008
  "Reported data breaches increased sharply in the first six months of 2008, jumping 69 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a study by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). But the percentage of breaches occurring in the government sector has dropped steadily in the past three years."

• Document and Records Management Still Lags
  Baseline - July 2, 2008
  "A new study appears to point to the challenges of managing unstructured data, as in electronic document and records management, in the enterprise."

• Don't give Google a free pass on data collection, privacy advocates say after YouTube ruling
  ComputerWorld - July 7, 2008
  "A federal judge's order that Google Inc. turn over 12TB of data on YouTube users and their video-viewing histories to Viacom International Inc. has sparked concerns about potential privacy violations. But according to some privacy advocates, the concerns voiced about the ruling ignore an important point -- namely, what is Google doing collecting and retaining all that data in the first place?"

• E-Government's Tough Nut
  NextGov - July 3, 2008
  "A report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project on broadband adoption has some sobering news for the next president – if he wants to expand electronic government. The first statistic that jumps out of the report, 'Home Broadband Adoption 2008," is that the percentage of low-income Americans who have a broadband Internet connection dropped from 28 percent in March 2007 to 25 percent in April 2008."

• European Lawmaker To Sue U.S. Over Data
  Washington Post - July 1, 2008
  "A European Union lawmaker who frequently travels to the United States is suing the U.S. government for access to her personal records, such as credit card information and travel history, that the Department of Homeland Security and other security agencies may have gathered."

• GAO: Archives not overseeing e-mail record preservation
  NextGov - July 8, 2008
  "The National Archives and Records Administration has done little to ensure that agencies properly preserve e-mail, with the number of agencies it has advised on records management dropping by more than 90 percent in the past five years, according to a report scheduled for release this week by the Government Accountability Office."

• Generation Y seeks more interaction with government online
  NextGov - July 2, 2008
  "A recently released survey shows that Generation Y prefers to connect with government online in an interactive manner similar to the way they seek out news and other information. A poll of 2,000 people born between 1977 and 1990 showed that 88 percent will obtain their news online during the next four years. Seventy-four percent want more information on government spending and programs, and 85 percent said they want the next president to reach out to the public online at least monthly."

• Groups Sue U.S. for Data On Tracking By Cellphone
  Washington Post - July 2, 2008
  "The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the government in federal court in Washington under the Freedom of Information Act. Last November, the ACLU had filed a FOIA request with the Justice Department for documents, memos and guides regarding the policies for tracking people through the use of their cellphones."

• How to Prevent Identity Theft
  Identity Theft Daily - June 30, 2008
  "Identity Theft poses a very serious issue to everyone today. If you have a driver's license, a bank account, a computer, or simply a social security number you are more than at risk, you are a target. Whether you are new to the idea of ID Theft, or you have some unanswered questions, we've compiled a quick refresher list below that should bring you up to speed."

• IG: State Department passport system wide open
  NextGov - July 3, 2008
  "The State Department has failed to provide adequate controls to prevent unauthorized access to individuals' passport files, according to an inspector general's report released on Thursday."

• Most network data sits untouched
  Government Computer News - July 1, 2008
  " Statistically speaking, most data on enterprise networks rarely gets accessed after it is written to network storage, according to researchers from NetApp Inc. and the University of California. Evidently, we are too busy writing new data to go back over old data."

• Protecting Your Data No Matter What Happens: Disaster, Growth, or Even Failure to Back Up
  Computer Technology Review - June 30, 2008
  "As your business grows, so does your responsibility for protecting data. The key to doing it with minimal anxiety and controlled expense is taking advantage of technologies...that let you match needs, at costs you can justify."

• Saving records a tough task after disasters
  DesMoines Register - July 2, 2008
  "Pages from Parkersburg's city budget fluttered along the streets of Prairie du Chien, Wis., nearly 132 miles away. Court records sat in saturated boxes inside an old J.C. Penney store in Cedar Rapids. Officials across the state still wait to see what condition their documents...will be in once they return to government buildings."

• Ten considerations for email archiving
  Search Storage - July 1, 2008
  "More and more companies are archiving their users' emails for business and legal reasons. If you haven't standardised on an archiving product, it can be a time-consuming process to find one that fits your company's needs; there are many choices available and each tool has unique features."

• US contradicts itself over its own ID theft advice
  San Francisco Chronicle - July 2, 2008
  "The government doesn't have to look very far to see who's ignoring its advice on preventing identity theft. It's the government itself. The nation's Medicare agency and the Pentagon want at least 52 million Americans to carry their Social Security numbers in their wallets, contrary to warnings by the Federal Trade Commission that people should avoid doing so."

THE SCOOP for July 2, 2008

• Charter Scraps User-Tracking Plan After Privacy Flap
  E-Commerce Times - June 25, 2008
  "Caving to pressure from privacy groups and members of Congress, Charter Communications will not launch a pilot program with partner NebuAd that tracks the online activity of users to serve ads that match their specific interests."

• Continuity of Operations
  NextGov - June 23, 2008
  "Continuity of operations are guidelines that ensure that the government can carry on all essential functions in case of a natural or manmade disaster. Recent disasters (the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina) highlighted the necessity of agencies having a continuity plan. The idea of preserving key government functions during times of crises, however, dates back to the beginning of the Cold War."

• Data Breaches Top the Agenda at RSA Conference
  NewsFactor Business Report - June 25, 2008
  "Experts want Congress to seek out industry experts in advance of new cybersecurity laws. One proposal, the Federal Agency Data Protection Act, is being considered, but may not pass during this session. Experts urged Congress to look into data retention standards and circumstances where government can examine Internet access and use data."

• Feds sued over alleged mining of immigrants' data
  Associated Press - June 25, 2008
  "The U.S. government secretly gathered personal data on more than 130,000 immigrants in the run-up to the war in Iraq, according to a purported FBI document attached to a lawsuit filed Tuesday demanding more detail about how the information was gathered and used."

• Finding Information on the Web is Easier than Finding Information in an Organization
  AIIM - June 24, 2008
  "According to data collected from over 500 business users and soon to be released in an AIIM Market IQ on Findability, 82% of respondents “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that their experience with consumer Web sites has created demand for improved enterprise findability within their own organizations. “The consumer-facing Web has a number of clear guidelines for success in Findability such as the impact on revenue, costs, and marketing,” states AIIM Director Dan Keldsen."

• Hackers hijack critical Internet organization sites - Turkish gang redirect ICANN, IANA traffic, taunt 'We control the domains!'
  Computerworld - June 27, 2008
  "Turkish hackers yesterday defaced the official sites of the international organizations that oversee the Internet's critical routing infrastructure and regulate domain names, researchers said today."

• House Subcommittee Approves Measure Promoting Electronic Health Records
  CQ Politics - June 25, 2008
  "A House panel Wednesday approved bipartisan legislation intended to encourage the widespread adoption of electronic records in the health industry, though some Republicans said they hope to weaken privacy protections in the bill before it passes."

• Internet Archive helps prevent digital dark age
  The Peterborough Examiner - June 24, 2008
  "A recent report estimated that the average life of a web page is a measly 45 days. No one can deny that the Internet defines our society and ultimately a world culture, but it's transient, and no more permanent than the chips and wireless connections that make it possible. This fact was not lost on a group of people at the University of California, and in 1996 the Internet Archive was created ( www.archive.org).With grants and donated computers, the collective set out to make a permanent and growing record of every website on the Internet. The archive now contains numerous snapshots of just about every publicly accessible website that has existed since 1996."

• LifeLock Sued for Corporate Identity Theft
  Wired - June 30, 2008
  "The identity theft protection firm whose CEO lists his Social Security number in ads for the company is being sued by Namesafe, a competitor in the identity theft protection market, for allegedly stealing the company's corporate identity and deceptive trade practices."

• Microsoft, Google, Consumers Endorse Health Privacy Standards
  Bloomberg - June 25, 2008
  "Microsoft Corp., Google Inc., and dozens of organizations promoting consumer adoption of electronic personal health records agreed for the first time on a comprehensive set of privacy protections."

• NARA launches electronic records archives
  Federal Computer Week - June 27, 2008
  "The National Archives and Records Administration's Electronic Records Archives (ERA) system — the agency's decade-long $453 million project to create an electronic records archiving system — has reached its initial operating capability."

• Seven steps to disaster-recovery planning
  Network World - June 25, 2008
  "Unpredictability is a fact of life. Whether terrorist attacks, cataclysmic weather or simply a backhoe severing a power cable, enterprises never know when their operations may be threatened. But mitigating the consequences of disasters need not be a matter of worry and guesswork. Here are seven steps to effective business-continuity/disaster-recovery (BCDR) planning that will provide some practical guidance."

• SSA lists thousands of live persons as dead
  Federal Computer Week - June 26, 2008
  "The Social Security Administration inadvertently compromised the personal information of more than 20,000 people by listing them in the Death Master File (DMF) while they were still alive, the agency's inspector general has determined."

• U.S. and Europe Near Agreement on Private Data
  New York Times - June 28, 2008
  "The United States and the European Union are nearing completion of an agreement allowing law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information — like credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits — about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean."

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