NIST Unveils ‘Capstone’ Guidance for Cloud Email Archives

The National Archives and Records Administration has released guidance that aims to give federal agencies a new approach for managing email records with electronic methods.

NARA’s bulletin contains factors the agency believes other agencies should consider before implementing the “Capstone” approach, NARA said Aug. 29.

Such factors include business requirements, position and work of the account owner and the type of records needed to be preserved.

Capstone aims to help agencies comply with a NARA and Office of Management and Budget directive requiring agencies to manage permanent and temporary email records in an accessible electronic format by Dec. 31, 2016.

Capstone uses existing technologies and works to capture records agencies want to preserve from the accounts of officials.

Agencies can use Capstone to classify and schedule emails based on the account owner’s office and function, NARA says.

NARA intends for Capstone to help agencies manage Freedom of Information Act requests, store email records for transition to NARA and prevent unauthorized removal of records, among other functions.