This guidance identifies key considerations specific and unique to cloud email, which need to be addressed prior to its implementation.
Email messages sent and received in the course of official business are State records under the State Records Act 1998. This includes messages sent and received by Ministers in the course of their official duties. It also includes messages relating to any aspect of official (government) business coming from private email accounts.
Large amounts of corporate information and corporate risk are tied up in email systems. Email therefore needs special treatment by organisations and specific requirements and systems need to be in place to ensure that email can be managed.
Government records held in private ownership or possession without appropriate authorisation are referred to as ‘estrays’. The State Records Act 1998 provides for the recovery of estrays back to official control.
The purpose of this section of the guidelines is to discuss issues concerning the purchase of digitisation equipment for back-capture digitisation projects, including hardware and software.