The main threat to your digital records
How best to secure, store and preserve records depends on whether they are physical or electronic. Physical records can be secured by keeping them in vaults and warehouses with appropriate access, temperature and humidity controls. For electronic records, a range of sophisticated technology can be used. Electronic storage can save space and costs, but electronic records may be more susceptible to inappropriate access.
Storing electronic records introduces the options for electronic storage. Storing physical records directs you to further information for storing records of various physical formats.
If you have records stored with the National Archives, see Storage and charging at the National Archives.
For how to protect records from unauthorised access or interference, see Securing records.
Preserving records means ensuring that they are accessible for as long as required. Preserving records can be as simple as keeping paper files in a temperature-controlled room, or more complex, such as migrating electronic records to a new software platform so that they can continue to be understood.
The decisions you make about preserving records will depend on several factors:
Central to each answer will be the relative importance of the records for accountability, ongoing business needs and cultural heritage requirements. See Keep, destroy or transfer.
For information on preservation, see Preserving physical objects or Preserving electronic records.
Your agency will also need to consider how it will deal with any disaster that threatens its records. Loss of records can disrupt your business, as information about decisions and outcomes may no longer be available. In order to continue functioning, it is important that your agency considers what plans need to be in place in the event of a disaster.
For more information about disaster planning, see Business continuity and disaster prevention planning.