A much anticipated redo of classification policy released by the White House this week confers new responsibilities for addressing the impending problem of reviewing mountains of electronic records for declassification.
An executive order on classified national security information that was disclosed on Tuesday establishes a declassification center and directs the center to coordinate "the development of solutions to declassification challenges posed by electronic records, special media, and emerging technologies."
The Information Security Oversight Office, part of the National Archives and Records Administration, warned President George W. Bush in 2007 that "too little has been done with regard to . . . developing plans to cope with the truly monumental problem looming on the horizon: the review of classified information contained in electronic records."
Classified information is subject to automatic declassification after 25 years. The Information Security Oversight Office noted that today most information being screened for declassification is paper-based but that is clearly changing. The report predicted that one day all federal records may be digitized and stored electronically.
Aliya Sternstein
Aliya Sternstein reports on cybersecurity and homeland security systems for Nextgov. She has covered technology for nine years at such publications as National Journal's TechnologyDaily, Federal Computer Week and Forbes. Before joining Government Executive, she covered agriculture and derivatives trading for Congressional Quarterly. She has been a guest commentator on C-SPAN, WTOP and Federal News Radio. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
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