When it comes to protecting constituents, government agencies are held to high standards. Local governments are tasked with safeguarding citizen data just as strictly as they are with their government-related data as it is all vulnerable to data breaches and it has been estimated that close to 20% of all cyberattacks impact the public sector, a number that continues to grow each year.
These types of attacks plague local governments with both hardware and software replacements along with lost data and revenue, financial theft, and damage to the level of trust from their citizens. The loss of your data could have lasting repercussions for you but the municipality itself could very well be held liable for any falsification or abuse of the stolen information. Read now.
However, data protection is just one service that local governments are required to provide you when it comes to your digital interactions with them. Different from traditional site backups and exponentially better than basic screenshots, archive software is protecting you in ways that you’re probably not aware of.
The Benefits to Law Enforcement
Courts, police and sheriff departments and courthouses all over the country have websites and social media channels they use to engage with their citizens and notify them of bulletins, accidents, weather issues, and other community alerts. The use of archive software for their chats, message boards, and comments can give them an extra tool in the fight against crime.
Archiving provides them with the ability to store court-ready documents that are immediately available. In order to capture social media records in the past, many jurisdictions utilized screenshots. However, because there is no proof of the screenshots authenticity and integrity, it’s inefficient and not admissible in court. Archive software records everything, including the metadata that authenticates the data.
Archive Software Saves Time & Money
As we are all too well aware of, our taxes pay the salary of our local government employees and time is money. One regulation that all government entities are subject to is open records and public information requests.
Gone are the days of physical records filling up room after room with overflowing filing cabinets. Virtually all local governments have moved to digital records keeping but in doing so, many of them have created a new massive hurdle… how to find what they need, when they need it.
Agencies that utilize archive software are able to retrieve complete and accurate records at an instant instead of spending untold hours trying to locate information for a request on something that occurred months or even years ago. This means that your hard-earned tax dollars will be used to pay the salary of someone doing more productive tasks.
Data preservation is extremely important for local governments. If you’re an elected official or a constituent that’s unsure whether they’re protected by this important practice, it’s strongly recommended that you immediately review your options in order to implement this protocol as quickly as possible.