National Archives and Records Administration

White Paper on 

Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records 



May 2013 
National Archives and Records Administration

2 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

I. Background .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 

II. Types of Social Media in use by Federal Agencies .............................................................................................. 3 

III. Examples of Current Federal Agency Use........................................................................................................... 4 

IV. Examples of social media capture tools and methods....................................................................................... 9 

V. Federal Records Council Study Findings............................................................................................................ 21

VI. Best Practices for Records Management......................................................................................................... 21

Building a Foundation ......................................................................................................................... 22

Tools and Methods ............................................................................................................................. 22

Implementation .................................................................................................................................. 22

VII. NARA’s transfer guidance and best practices for formats.............................................................................. 23

References............................................................................................................................................................. 24

Additional Resources............................................................................................................................................. 24
3 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

I. Background

Federal agencies are increasingly using social media platforms to engage with their employees and the 

public. Such activity may result in the creation of Federal records that must be captured and managed in 

compliance with Federal records management laws, regulations, and policies. 

GAO Audit 11-605,“Social Media: Federal Agencies Need Policies and Procedures for Managing and 

Protecting Information They Access and Disseminate," concluded that social media “can pose challenges 

in managing and identifying records, protecting personal information, and ensuring the security of 

Federal information and systems.”1 The audit specifically addressed security and records management 

issues concerning agency social media activity. In response, the Archivist of the United States committed 

NARA to developing "guidance on effectively capturing records from social media sites and ... best 

practices.”2 Additionally, through forums Federal agencies have frequently expressed the desire for 

additional guidance. This white paper is part of NARA’s effort to provide guidance and best practices 

for capturing social media records.

It is not feasible for NARA to provide platform-specific guidance because it is difficult to predict which 

tools will be available and preferred in the future. NARA’s Report on Federal Web 2.0 Use and Record 

Value concluded that agencies anticipate a great deal of change in the social media landscape in part 

due to increasing technological convergence. Altogether these changes will provide more challenges to 

records management staff and their ability to capture and preserve content.3

 

This paper reports on the current state of social media use in the Federal government. These examples 

offer building blocks for the creation of best practices for the successful capture of social media records. 

This white paper also provides an overview of available capture tools as of May 2013. 

II. Types of Social Media in use by Federal Agencies 

According to NARA's 2011 Records Management Self-Assessment Report, seventy percent of agencies 

currently use social media. Federal agencies employ a variety of social media platforms in their public 

outreach and internal communications. To reach targeted audiences on a large scale, agencies reported 

they most commonly used Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube among a multitude of platforms. 4 GAO 11-

605 reported that some Federal agencies have garnered a large base of followers through effective use 

of social media. 5

Social media serves several purposes including reposting information available on agency websites, 

posting information not available on publicly accessible agency websites, soliciting and responding to 

 

1 U. S. Government Accountability Office, Federal Agencies Need Policies and Procedures for Managing and Protecting 

Information They Access and Disseminate, GAO-11-605 (June 2011), “What GAO Found,” 

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11605.pdf. 2 Ibid, 40. 

3 National Archives and Records Administration, A Report on Federal Web 2.0 Use and Record Value (2010) 18-19, 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/resources/web2.0-use.pdf. 4 National Archives and Records Administration, Records Management Self-Assessment Report (2011), 23, 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/resources/self-assessment-2011.pdf. 5

 U.S. Government Accountability Office, Federal Agencies Need Policies and Procedures for Managing and Protecting 

Information They Access and Disseminate, GAO-11-605 (June 2011), 4-5, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11605.pdf.

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4 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

comments, and providing links to non-governmental websites. External communication can mean 

interacting with the public or collaborating with other Federal agencies or other organizations. Internal 

communication can be for business or social purposes. The U.S. Navy describes the importance of using 

social media in its Social Media Handbook as helping “fulfill your obligation to communicate with all of 

your stakeholders. It also provides another, often richer, means of sharing information with internal and 

external audiences. Your stakeholders are increasingly using social media, and you’re better off reaching 

them there than not at all.”6 Agencies have described social media tools as a “multiplier of resources” 

where “more audiences can be reached with fewer resources needed on the part of the agency.”7 The 

use of social media by agencies from across the Federal government points to a general consensus 

regarding its value as a powerful communication tool. 

Despite the mass communication opportunities, GAO 11-605 identified several areas of concern 

regarding Federal agencies’ use of social media, including appropriate identification and management of 

Federal records, ensuring privacy for users, and security for government information systems. 8

Reinforcing these concerns, NARA’s 2011 Records Management Self-Assessment Report indicated that 

only fifty percent of responding agencies had policies and procedures for capturing and managing 

official records created on social media platforms although many said that policies were under 

development.9

 However, several agencies stated they had media neutral records schedules they 

believed made social media-specific schedules unnecessary. Others said that official social media 

records were not being captured or were being printed in hard copy form without contextual metadata. 

The above assumptions may be contrary to records management best practices and should be discussed 

with the agency’s Appraisal Archivist. Agencies must consider the preservation of content and context of 

Federal record material regardless of format.10

III. Examples of Current Federal Agency Use

A number of current social media recordkeeping and capture policies from Federal agencies were 

identified. The following chart provides details from selected policies, including excerpts addressing 

capture. The methods and tools included in the following chart are not endorsed by NARA but give a 

sense of the present landscape. 

 

6 U.S. Navy, Navy Command Social Media Handbook (2010), 3, 

http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/PAO/socialnetwrk/soc_med_hnd_bk.pdf. 7 National Archives and Records Administration, A Report on Federal Web 2.0 Use and Record Value (2010), 15, 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/resources/web2.0-use.pdf. 8

 U.S. Government Accountability Office, Federal Agencies Need Policies and Procedures for Managing and Protecting 

Information They Access and Disseminate, GAO-11-605 (2011), 8-9, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11605.pdf. 9 National Archives and Records Administration, Records Management Self-Assessment Report (2011), 26-27, 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/resources/self-assessment-2011.pdf. 10 National Archives and Records Administration, “Expanding Acceptable Transfer Requirements: Transfer Instructions for 

Permanent Electronic Records” (2004), http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/web-content-records.html; National 

Archives and Records Administration, “NARA Guidance on Managing Web Records” (2005), http://www.archives.gov/recordsmgmt/policy/managing-web-records.html.
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5 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Agency Social Media Policies Social Media in Use Excerpts from Social Media Policies

Centers for Disease 

Control

CDC Social Media Tools, Guidelines and Best Practices

Twitter Guidelines and Best 

Practices

Facebook Guidelines and Best 

Practices

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, 

LinkedIn

"9. Establish a Records Management System: Set-up a system to keep track of 

your Twitter posts, @replies, retweets and mentions to comply with Federal 

guidelines for records management and archiving." (Twitter Guidelines p.4)

"Records Management. All Facebook page administrators must establish a system to collect all Facebook posts, comments, fan posts, events, and hidden 

posts (spam) to comply with Federal guidelines for records management and 

archiving.

Any comment removed for violating the CDC commenting policy must be recorded and archived prior to deleting.” (Facebook Guidelines p.2)

U.S. Coast Guard Social Media Chapter 11 from 

the Public Affairs Manual

Social Media Field Guide

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, 

Vimeo, Flickr, blogs, RSS feeds

"Because a social media site is conducting the communications and transaction 

on behalf of the Coast Guard, it shall be properly managed as a Federal record. 

All content and comments posted on official social media sites shall be preserved IAW the Information and Life Cycle Management Manual, COMDTINST 

M5212.12 (series)." (Chapter 11 p.11-4)

"2. General Comments. Comments that do not affect or require any administrative action, policy decision or special compilation shall remain posted but are 

considered obsolete in 10 days. Delete after one year.

3. Deleted comments. Comments that do not follow Public Affairs Social Media 

Policy will be deleted but retained for one year. The comments can be destroyed after one year if no other action has been taken regarding the deletion 

of the comment. The moderator shall take a screen shot...label the file with the 

date, title of Facebook post and the initials of the person who removed the 

comment; and store the file on a shared folder for easy retrieval if a Freedom of 

Information Act request or other action be necessary...

4. IAW this records schedule, CG-0922 has identified a free online tool, 

Backupify (www.backupify.com) to archive content and comments on official 

Facebook pages...Coast Guard page managers shall establish a separate, nonpersonal Backupify account and maintain archived data of official page content 

and comments." (Social Media Field Guide p.8-9)

Department of AgricultureNew Media Roles, Responsibilities and AuthoritiesFacebook, USDA Blog, Twitter, 

YouTube, Flickr, Storify, RSS, 

widgets

"(2) Records must be maintained for original or unique content created or published to new media accounts or platforms, such as public comments or information posted by individuals acting on behalf of the Department.

(3) Each Agency or program office is responsible for maintaining records related 
Agency Social Media Policies Social Media in Use Excerpts from Social Media Policies

to their new media accounts or activities." (p.3)

"(3) Working with the OC to ensure that new media technologies comply with 

established USDA IT security, archival and records management requirements...

(5) Identifying and properly archiving record material in accordance with approved records disposition schedules.(6) Ensuring that records on new media 

web sites are copied or otherwise captured and maintained with related records, unless the site has a records management application that can manage the 

record throughout its lifecycle." (p. 5-6)

Department of Housing Departmental Policies and Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, HUD "A statement of record retention should be posted 'This is the HUD page on 

and Urban Develop- Procedures for Use of Social Wiki, Looking into e-book publish- Facebook. Comments posted on and messages received through HUD pages are 

ment Media Sites by HUD Offices ing and formats considered Federal records and shall be archived.' Please see NARA’s General 

and Staff Records Schedules, in particular Section 20 on electronic records

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/grs/." (p. 5)

Department of State Using Social Media Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, "(9) Records in social media sites must be copied or otherwise captured and 

Flickr, Tumblr, blogs, Google+, maintained with related records, unless the site has a record management apPinterest, RSS feeds plication that can manage the records throughout its lifecycle. Nonrecord content consisting of duplicate information which is maintained in other department recordkeeping systems (original recordkeeping copy is maintained in accordance with its records disposition schedule), and transitory records do not 

need to be archived and may be deleted when no longer needed." (p.11)

Department of Veter- VA Directive 6515 Use of Web- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, VA records officer shall "(2) Work with the Archivist of the United States and VA 

ans Affairs based Collaboration Technolo- Flickr, blogs content owners to determine the most appropriate method(s) to capture and 

gies retain VA records on both Federal servers and VA activities hosted on nonFederal Web-based collaboration hosts." (p. 14)

Environmental Protec- Social Media Policy Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, "11. Maintain Records

tion Agency Flickr, Challenge.gov, blogs, and a The laws, regulations and policies that govern proper records management (i.e., 

Using Social Media Internally Yammer pilot creation, maintenance/use and disposition) still apply when using social meat the EPA dia...New content created with social media tools that qualifies as a Federal record must be captured and maintained in a recordkeeping system according to 

EPA Facebook Guidance EPA’s Records Management Policy...Please note that content created with social 

media tools may be subject to document production under FOIA or litigation” 

(Using Social Media Internally p.4-5)

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6 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records
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7 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Agency Social Media Policies Social Media in Use Excerpts from Social Media Policies

"Never simply delete comments and other fan-generated content! If content 

does not meet the comment policy, retain the entire item and as much detail as

possible (fan name, the date and time of posting, etc.) in an offline format. For

example, comments can be stored in a simple Word document. Store multimedia content in its native format and note the details in the same Word document. Capture enough about the post and the response so that someone reading about it later gets the context. Also note the reason why the content did not 

meet the comment policy. Then delete it from your page." (EPA Facebook Guidance)

General Services AdministrationSocial Media Navigator: GSA's

Guide to Official Use of Social

Media

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,

LinkedIn, Flickr, blogs, Google+,

RSS feeds

“When using electronic media, whether it is a blog, a website, a wiki, email, or 

any other type of electronic communication, the regulations that govern proper

management, archival, and release of records still apply. The National Archives

and Records Administration (NARA) offers resources and guidance to agencies

to ensure proper records management. Contact records@gsa.gov for questions

pertaining to records management at GSA." (p.7)

National Archives and

Records Administration

Rules of Behavior for Using

Web 2.0 and Social Media

Web Sites and Responsibilities 

for Content Management,

NARA Guidance 831-2, February 24, 2010.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,

Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare,

Pinterest, Google+, Ustream,

Historypin, Apps, blogs, wikis,

Internal Collaboration Network

(ICN), RSS feeds

"(2) Records created and maintained in social media may be covered in the

agency’s Records Control Schedule and/or the General Records Schedules and

should be managed in accordance with approved dispositions." (p.8)

U.S. Navy Navy Command Social Media

Handbook

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,

Flickr, RSS feeds

"Records keeping policy guidance for social media is being developed by

USG/DoD. In the interim, it is up to COs and their PAOs to make a determination

on when and what kind of information to archive. For example, if a unit is involved in an operation of historical significance then it would be prudent for the

command to archive as much of the content of their social media presences as

possible for the historical record. Some effective means of archiving information

include ensuring the content posted on social presences is also available via a

command website, archiving e-mail related to command social presences, taking screen captures of social presences and copying and pasting posted content

into a text file or word document." (p.9)

Smithsonian Institution Electronic Records: Recom- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, For text, video, audio, and other files: "In accordance with best practices, SI Ar-
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8 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Agency Social Media Policies Social Media in Use Excerpts from Social Media Policies

mendation for Preservation Flickr, Pinterest, Virtual World, chives prefers to preserve transferred electronic records in the formats deFormats blog scribed in the table below." (Electronic Records p.5)

"We created PDF/A capture of Facebook pages." (The Smithsonian: Using and 

The Smithsonian: Using and Archiving Facebook)

Archiving Facebook
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9 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

IV. Examples of social media capture tools and 

methods

Application of policies and techniques to capture Federal 

social media records in the Executive Branch is in its 

infancy. Agencies employ various methods to capture 

content created on social media platforms. In May 2012, 

the Office of the Chief Records Officer and NARA's Social 

Media Team held a forum with Federal records 

management staff and web mangers to discuss best 

practices for social media capture. Participants confirmed 

they are using, testing, or considering a number of tools 

and techniques (see the table at right). They also asked 

questions regarding precisely what should be captured. 

Through presentations and discussions, only a few 

examples of successful implementation of capture tools 

and techniques emerged that could be classified as "best 

practices." For the purposes of this paper, best practices 

are defined as methods, techniques, or actions that allow 

agencies to capture complete social media records with 

associated metadata. The complete capture will allow 

agencies to manage records throughout their lifecycle

while maintaining functionality and searchability to meet Federal records management requirements. 

Social media content capture is an emerging topic that has not consolidated around standards for 

capture. Many of the available tools are focused on providing "backup" products to users and are not 

aimed at capture for recordkeeping purposes. These vendors often provide a free basic service and 

charge for additional functionality or number of information streams. Some tools focus on providing 

capture for e-discovery and regulations compliance (e.g. FINRA, SOX). These tools can assist in capturing 

content so that agencies have a copy of what their social media platforms contained at a given time.

Web crawlers are another potential tool that can assist in the capture of web content. They often 

require higher levels of expertise and specific knowledge to deploy effectively. Examples of web 

crawlers are listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler (as of May 2013). As stated in NARA 

Guidance on managing social media records, it is the responsibility of the agency to determine what 

kinds of content and metadata should be captured as records, weighing if these are adequate for 

preservation purposes. 

The NARA Guidance on managing social media records addressed strategies agencies could take to 

manage records, including:

• Using web crawling or other software to create local versions of sites;

• Using web capture tools to capture social media content and migrate to

other formats;

• Using platform specific application programming interfaces (APIs) to pull 

content;

• Using RSS Feeds, aggregators, or manual methods to capture content;

Capture Tools and Methods 

Currently in Use at Federal 

Agencies

• Backup tools

• Ask vendor directly for 

content

• Copy and paste into a word 

document

• Export from social media 

platform in CSV format

• Print and file

• PDF/A

• Application Programming 

Interfaces (APIs) to create a 

customized tool to download 

into a database
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10 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

• Using tools built into some social media platforms to export content.

The following table lists available tools and software available at the time of publication (May 2013) that 

could assist Federal agencies in implementing the above strategies for capturing social media content. 

They were neither tested nor are they endorsed by NARA. It remains the responsibility of agency records 

officers to evaluate software functionality and compliance with recordkeeping requirements. The list 

represents the range of services available together with pricing information, product descriptions from 

their developers and available product reviews. The “Platforms Able to Capture” column illustrates that 

some tools are designed for a specific type of social media and others for many different kinds. Where 

the method of capture is divulged, it is included in its own column. 
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11 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Provider Paid Service Product Description & Use Cases Platforms Able

to Capture

Method of Capture Notes

Actiance Socialite Socialite provides products to assist in

the backup and management of social

media content.

Facebook,

LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube

Aleph Archives Web archiving service uses CAMA tool

for regulatory compliance and ediscovery aimed at corporations to 

capture, store, and sort web content 

for e-discovery and regulatory compliance. Provides a number of service 

plans.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, 

YouTube, websites

Web crawlers regularly crawl and capture

web sites as complete snapshots and displays 

the content in its original form (no URL rewriting, no JavaScript injection, etc.) They use

the Web ARChive (WARC) format (ISO

28500:2009). Content can be stored with 

them or on own servers.

Alfresco Provides content management within

the tool. It is unclear if it captures 

content with related metadata.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,

websites,

Content management system captures social 

media content when it publishes to the platform.

Archify Archify captures and organizes social

media streams and browser activity

and makes it searchable and accessible across all devices.

Facebook,

Twitter,

LinkedIn

ArchiveFacebook Mozilla Firefox plug-in saves content

from Facebook accounts directly to 

hard drives, including photos, info,

messages, activity stream, friends list,

notes, events and groups. 

Facebook Prototype called Facebook Archiver uses a

modified version of ScrapBook to perform

specific AJAX requests in order to capture 

each page of a Facebook account. Modifying

the internal linkage of the captured pages will 

make the archived collection easier to

browse.

Archive-It Subscription service from the Internet

archive allows institutions to build,

manage and search their own web 

archive.

Facebook, web

sites, Twitter

Harvest web content according to subscriber's frequency preference for each URL they

are capturing, including "on demand" capture

request, such as the case of a historic event.

ArchiveSocial Automatically captures and archives

social media content for compliance,

records management, and eFacebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,YouTube

No software installation

required.
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12 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Provider Paid Service Product Description & Use Cases Platforms Able 

to Capture

Method of Capture Notes

discovery needs.

Arkovi RegEd Captures social media content to 

power your compliance and enable 

your marketing to expand. 

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, 

Google+, 

YouTube, RSS 

feeds

Arkovi accesses social networks directly 

through their APIs to capture content regardless of how it’s created or published. They use 

RSS feeds to capture blogs and other social 

platforms that offer limited or no API access.

Backup Buddy Backup service for WordPress that 

allows users to create a backup of the 

entire installation and send to their 

server, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, 

FTP, or e-mail. The backup can help 

users restore and migrate WordPress 

installations.

Wordpress Backs up single or multipress Wordpress with 

widgets, themes, and plug-ins with scheduled 

backups.

Backupify for Personal AppsPay as you go backup service with no 

contracts that provides fullysearchable automated backups of 

social media content and storage for 

the data.

Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, 

Google Drive, 

Google Calendar, Google 

Sites, Google 

Contacts, Flickr, 

Picasa and 

Blogger 

Backupify queries the APIs of each online 

account to identify recently added and updated files and copies content to an encrypted archive in Amazon's high-availability storage cloud. It then makes copies available for 

download or restoration.

They do not capture Facebook Places, FML markup 

code, or Page Insights data. 

Backup is weekly for the 

free accounts and daily for 

paid accounts.

Convogence A subscription service for continual 

capture and retention of social media 

content. It can be used for compliance with a records retention policy 

for data outside of a company’s firewall.

Facebook, Twitter, blogs, RSS 

and ATOM 

Feeds, and 

Google Apps

Web crawler captures social media and subscribers can request an export of content at 

any time, but it is unclear what the formats 

are. They also provide an API for customers to 

build adapters to integrate with any legacy 

system.

Downloadr Windows app that allows users to 

download photos from Flickr to their 

computer.

Flickr Writes EXIF and IPTC data so titles, tags and 

location are preserved. Can search by full 

text, user, tags, place, set, date, relevance, 

group, and favorites.
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13 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Provider Paid Service Product Description & Use Cases Platforms Able 

to Capture

Method of Capture Notes

Erado Offers email, social media, and instant 

message archiving to comply with 

FINRA, SEC, Sarbanes-Oxley, GrammLeach-Bliley, FERC, NERC, and HIPAA.

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, 

and blogs

Captures content either directly from social 

media platforms or using Erado’s platformspecific tools. Content is converted into Erado 

format and either hosted or delivered to a 

customer-preferred platform.

Facebook Download 

service

Facebook provides a backup of a user’s profile, including content posted 

to timeline, photos and videos uploaded to account, friend lists, usercreated Notes, RSVP’d events, sent 

and received messages, any comments made on timeline posts, photos, and other timeline content. Users 

can also request an enhanced archive

that contains additional information. 

Facebook Facebook sends a ZIP file to the email address 

associated with a particular Facebook account. 

Only content associated 

with user’s account can be 

backed up and accessible.

Flickr API Flickr provides an open Application 

Programming Interface (API) so Flickr 

can communicate with other software 

or tools. Flickr also provides RSS feeds 

of updates to content.

Flickr

FlickrEdit Previously FlickrBackup, this opensource, Java-based desktop app allows users to download, edit, or upload photos to and from Flickr.Flickr

Free YouTube DownloadSoftware allows download of single 

YouTube videos or a batch of all of 

the videos of a selected YouTube user 

or channel.

YouTube Saves content in original YouTube format or 

converts to AVI, MP4, and WMV formats.

freezePAGE Service preserves web snapshots and 

automatically logs the date page was 

saved, IP address of the person who 

saved it, page size and more. Requires 

login every 3 days for unregistered 

Web sites Captures a snapshot of webpages and saves 

on freezePAGE server when a user enters URL 

(manual capture). Includes main web page 

and embedded elements such as images, 

stylesheets, and script files.

Webpage must be less 

than 3MB (or 10 MB for 

premium user accounts) 

with less than 500 embedded elements and retriev-
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14 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Provider Paid Service Product Description & Use Cases Platforms Able 

to Capture

Method of Capture Notes

users and 31 days for registered users 

or account and pages may be deleted.

able within 120 seconds.

Global Relay Global Relay Archive captures electronic messages in real time and creates a copy of each message, which is 

then indexed, serialized and 

time/date stamped. Users can access 

and search archived content.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Hanzo Archives Offers commercial web archiving services for regulatory compliance, litigation-support, and e-discovery. Subscribers can manage their web archives according to their RM policies 

with associated metadata.

Web sites, social mediaUses proprietary tools to capture content 

from complex websites, including rich-media 

and interactive content. Content can be 

searched, reviewed and exported. Subscribers can define their capture policy and have it 

captured and organized by time.

Hearsay Social Hearsay Social’s compliance module 

provides workflow management,

monitoring, and capture of social media from a central dashboard.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, 

Google+, Foursquare

Using APIs, data is archived within context, 

catalogued, and searchable. Users can export 

data to existing enterprise systems, including 

SiteMinder, Websphere, Autonomy, and Symantec Enterprise Vault.

Hootsuite Provides a social media dashboard for 

managing multiple accounts. Users 

can spread messages across networks, monitor keyword mentions in 

streams, and track results with builtin click-through stats and integrated 

Google Analytics.

Twitter Archived Messages is an optional add-on for 

the HootSuite Pro Plan. Twapperkeeper, now 

part of Hootsuite, archives tweets.

First 100 messages are 

archived for free and starting at $10/month for additional levels. Available 

from GSA's Apps.gov

If this, then that Users create ittt tasks by putting one 

channel's trigger together with another channel's action. Tasks are executed every 15 minutes and can be 

turned on or off and shared with others.

Twitter, Facebook, weather 

forecasts, 

email, etc.

Limited channels
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15 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Provider Paid Service Product Description & Use Cases Platforms Able 

to Capture

Method of Capture Notes

Iterasi Subscription service to create web 

archives for the corporate, legal and 

government industries. It includes 

data available requiring authentication such as direct messages on Twitter and messages on Facebook.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedInWeb crawlers capture entire sites or individual pages on-demand or on a regular schedule. 

Can also capture contents of RSS feeds (e.g., 

blog feeds, Twitter). The “Page Notary Tool” 

captures any webpage, even those password 

or firewall protected.

LiveOffice Social Archives service offered by Symantec is part of the larger LiveOffice 

software package.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedInCaptures social media content in a centralized 

repository

Only available with 

LiveOffice AdvisorMail.

Memento Memento, an LC-funded project run 

by Los Alamos National Laboratory 

and Old Dominion University, proposes a technical framework for integrating current and past Web.

Web sites Firefox plug-in retrieves web captures from 

the Internet Archive from a specified date 

and time.

Cloud Preservation 

by Nextpoint

Cloud Preservation is a subscription 

service that provides automated, 

cloud-based capture of web content 

for marketing, compliance, and litigation-related needs.

Websites, blogs 

Twitter, Facebook 

Uses Amazon’s Web Services to crawl the 

Web and archive sites, blogs and social media 

posts. Web crawler set to capture HTMP 

source code and images at pre-determined 

intervals.

Ohmygov Social media monitoring and metrics 

service that allows users to track social media accounts and compare 

their news mentions and rankings 

against their peers. 

Twitter, Facebook Provides account tracking which captures the 

full content of tweets. 

 

User’s comparisons are 

limited by which agencies 

the service tracks.

Ownbackup Service that provides daily automated 

backups of social media with unlimited storage.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, 

Salesforce, 

Gmail

Provides daily snapshots of cloud data, encrypts data via AES 256-bit, and stores on 

Amazon's EBS.

PageFreezer A subscription service to archive, 

browse and search dynamic web content in compliance with records management laws and as legal evidence.

Uses web crawling software to take daily 

snapshots of websites. Only new web pages 

and changes to web pages are archived to 

save on storage. Subscribers can request a 

local copy of all their web content in their 
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16 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Provider Paid Service Product Description & Use Cases Platforms Able 

to Capture

Method of Capture Notes

native formats (HTML, PDF, TXT, MS Office, 

OpenOffice, XML, CSS, Flash)

Parallel-Flickr Open-source tool for backing up Flickr 

photos and generating a databasebacked website that matches the 

viewing permissions the user has chosen on Flickr.

Flickr Downloads and stores a local copy of original 

photos and their "640x" versions along with 

the information retrieved via the API as a 

JSON file. It stores enough data about each 

photo in a database so that it can reconstruct 

your photostream and with a webpage for 

each photo. It uses the Flickr API as a single 

sign-on and validation service, which means 

that the site can retrieve and store your contact list and the relationship which each person in it.

Described as a work in 

progress.

Patrina Captures, indexes, and consolidates 

social media feeds into a hosted 

archive as WORM optical, format.

Facebook, 

Twitter, 

LinkedIn, 

blogs

Recollect Backs up users pictures, tweets, and 

check-ins from multiple social media 

accounts.

Twitter, Flickr, 

Instagram, 

Foursquare

Users have the ability to 

download their data.

Reed Archives Captures social media content on 

demand or on a schedule through 

social media APIs. Items can be 

tagged and searched. Users can also 

implement retention schedules on 

archived content.

Facebook, Twitter and 

LinkedIn, Web 

sites, RSS feeds

Users can export archives 

individually as PDFs or create bulk exports of entire 

websites and social media 

accounts into native format, eDRM XML and PDF. 

Site Replay Subscription service provides daily 

captures of screenshots with digital 

watermarks and signatures.

Websites Captures screenshots of webpages and provides access to them on their secure server. 

Stored screenshots can be viewed online or 

downloaded monthly.

SiteSucker for Mac 

OS X

SiteSucker is a Macintosh application 

that automatically downloads web 

Web sites Asynchronously copies a site's webpages, 

images, backgrounds, movies, and other files 
National Archives and Records Administration

17 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Provider Paid Service Product Description & Use Cases Platforms Able 

to Capture

Method of Capture Notes

sites from the Internet. to a local hard drive. Users enter a URL, press 

return, and SiteSucker downloads the web 

site.

Smarsh Subscription service provides cloudhosted social media archiving with no 

installation. Content is captured, preserved and indexed in a Smarsh archive where posts can be searched 

and retrieved.

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter 

and Chatter

Social media activity is captured via proxy or 

through APIs in real-time and each archived 

page and object is time stamped, hashed and 

stored in native format. Service package includes a monthly copy of client data via encrypted DVD. Users control updates and deletion schedules and can export content in its 

native format.

Each archive is read-only 

with 3 copies stored across 

two physical locations. 

Content retains its original 

usability and live links.

SMC4 by Integritie SMC4 enables automated capture, 

control, communication and compliance of social media. SMC4 workflow 

has all the features of standard with 

advanced case management. 

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, 

Google+, email

SocialSafe A downloadable application which 

will automatically download content 

when requested and store it locally 

on the user’s hard drive. No additional storage of content is available 

elsewhere.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, 

LinkedIn, 

Google+, 

Viadeo 

Saves all tweets (not just latest 3200) as a ZIP 

file for photos and CSV for Twitter.

Socialware The software platform provides a centralized access point for managing 

and capturing social media in compliance with organizational and legal 

policies. 

Facebook, 

Twitter, 

LinkedIn

Sonian IM Archive claims that it is easy to 

deploy, requires no maintenance, and 

adapts to the evolving IM, SMS, and 

social media technology landscape.

Social media
National Archives and Records Administration

18 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Provider Paid Service Product Description & Use Cases Platforms Able 

to Capture

Method of Capture Notes

Spredfast Customers use the Social Media Management System to monitor, coordinate, and measure social media content. Twitter, Facebook, Facebook 

applications, 

LinkedIn, 

YouTube, 

Flickr, 

SlideShare, 

blogs

Captures detailed records in the Enterprise 

Repository of every post made across each 

social media platform. It also captures an 

audit trail, internal comments and classifications, and all public engagement from a post.

ThinkUp An open source web application that 

captures activity on social networks.

Twitter, Facebook, Google+Captures posts made to selected social networks (at the time of this writing, Twitter, 

Facebook and Google+). Provides a metrics 

dashboard and the ability to export posts 

made to those networks as a CSV files and a 

set of associated metrics.

Total Discovery Software supporting litigation, digital 

investigations and electronic policy 

consulting now includes data collection capabilities for social media.

Twitter, Facebook Archives services are tied 

to e-Discovery services, 

not stand alone.

Tweet Archivist Windows application that helps users 

archive tweets for later data-mining 

and analysis.

Twitter

Tweetbook Creates a PDF ebook of most recent 

tweets, replies, and favorites at user’s 

request.

Twitter Up to 3200 most recent tweets included due 

to Twitter API limitation. Allows an option for 

a backup file in XML.

Tweet Library (Mac) Creates a local and searchable archive 

of tweets, favorites, and retweets. 

Creates collections so that users can 

create timelines.

Twitter Exports the archive, timeline, or collections to 

a text file for saving to your Mac or PC.

Downloads up to 3200 

tweets on the first launch. 

Users can upload the .zip 

archive from Twitter for 

their complete tweet history.

Tweet Nest Installs on web server to provide a 

backup of tweets that users can store, 

browse, and search. Users can also 

Twitter Users can follow creator 

Andy Graulund 

(@graulund) for script up-
National Archives and Records Administration

19 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Provider Paid Service Product Description & Use Cases Platforms Able 

to Capture

Method of Capture Notes

customize the display. dates.

Tweetstream TweetStream provides simple Ruby 

access to Twitter's Streaming API using open authorization.

Twitter Uses em-twitter, an EventMachine-based 

ruby client for the Twitter Streaming API, to 

connect to Twitter.

TwInbox Twitter add-on for Outlook email with 

searching and grouping capabilities as 

well as graphs of usage statistics.

Twitter Downloaded to Outlook.

Twitter API through 

manual backup

By submitting queries to the Twitter 

API, users can backup their data manually, including the data of all the 

people followed and user tweets.

Twitter Users can save their tweets, the people they 

follow and their followers as XML files by 

manually saving each page.

With an active Twitter account, the manual backup 

can be a lengthy process.

Twitter Archive 

Download 

Users can request a copy of their 

Twitter Archive from Twitter. The ZIP 

file includes user tweets and 

retweets. 

Twitter

Twitter Archiving 

Google Spreadsheet 

(TAGS)

Script that allows users to pull data 

from Twitter’s API and save it in a 

Google Spreadsheet. 

Twitter The updated version of 

Twitter Archiving Google 

Spreadsheet (TAGS) works 

with the new Twitter API 

and authenticates access.

Twitter Backup Downloadable software that captures 

all tweets and provides them in XML. 

Uses a document type identical to 

Twitter's API.

Twitter

Twitterscribe Provides a daily backup of user’s last 

200 tweets along with some metadata in the Twitterscribe database. Users can browse tweet by month and 

search by keyword, username, 

hashtag, or URL.

Twitter When user’s first sign up, they capture up to 

3200 tweets (the limit of the Twitter API). 

Requests user’s last 200 tweets from Twitter 

daily. Users can then login and export their 

tweets from Twitterscribe to CSV or PDF files.

Only captures tweets and 

retweets. 

WARCreate Google Chrome extension that allows 

users to create a Web ARChive 

(WARC) file from any browseable 

Websites WARCreate allows multiple archiving sessions to 

exist in a single WARC file 
National Archives and Records Administration

20 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Provider Paid Service Product Description & Use Cases Platforms Able 

to Capture

Method of Capture Notes

webpage. automatically and integrate with Memento.

WP-DB Manager WordPress plug-in allows users to 

optimize, repair, backup, restore, or 

delete a backup database, 

drop/empty tables and run selected 

queries. Supports automatic scheduling.

WordPress WP-DB Manager uses mysqldump application 

to generate the backup and mysql application 

to restore them via shell while WP-DB-Backup 

uses PHP to generate the backup.

X1 Social Discovery X1 Social Discovery collects, authenticates, searches, reviews and produces 

content. MD5 hash values are calculated upon capture and maintained in 

native format. Content can be tagged, 

sorted and exported.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, 

LinkedIn

Data is collected and indexed from social media streams, linked content and websites 

through APIs and direct web navigation, aggregating data in real time. Metadata is captured through APIs provided by the sites.

YTD Video DownloaderSoftware allows download of videos 

from YouTube, including HD and HQ 

videos.

Video from 

YouTube, Facebook, Google 

Video, Yahoo 

Video

Downloads and converts videos to MOV, 

MP4, 3GP, WMV, AVI, or MP3 files. Videos 

are played in Flash.
National Archives and Records Administration

21 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

V. Federal Records Council Study Findings

In 2011, the Social Media Subgroup of the Federal Records Council conducted a separate study on social 

media use in their agencies and evaluated the feasibility of various capture approaches. In particular, 

they examined how certain methods operated with existing Records Management Applications. They 

tested the following techniques for capture:

1) Copy/paste social media record content into a Microsoft Word document AND a PDF/A 

document and save into a Records Management Application (RMA).

2) Copy/paste social media record content into a Microsoft Word document AND a PDF/A 

document and save into a Share drive/Hard drive/any other non-RMA.

3) Utilize a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed into an RSS aggregator (i.e. Google Reader).

4) Utilize a RSS feed into an email account and save the record in an RMA.

5) Utilize commercial options embedded within the social media site or sold commercially (other 

than an RMA).

The Social Media Subgroup’s study indicated that certain approaches are not advised for capturing social 

media records. Specifically, the study found that screenshots (images of how a web site appeared on a 

given day and time) were not a helpful tool for capture.11 The President’s Digital Government Strategy of 

2012 reiterated that government must “[recognize] that simply publishing snapshots of government 

information is not enough to make it open, we need to improve the quality, accessibility, timeliness, and 

usability of our data and content through well-defined standards that include the use of machinereadable formats such as web APIs and common metadata tagging schemas."12 Screenshots only creates 

a picture of content and do not preserve the metadata and functionality of the content, which does not 

comply with NARA’s transfer guidance for permanent web content records.13

VI. Best Practices for Records Management

Most agencies have social media policies in place that cover various topics, such as what tools are being 

used, who is allowed to create content, and what can be said on social media platforms. Capture of 

social media records is often left out of these more general social media policies. 

Agencies should establish a foundation for successful capture by ensuring appropriate policies and 

retention schedules are in place prior to capturing social media records. The NARA Bulletin Guidance on 

managing social media records provides guidance on records scheduling that can help agency records 

management staff determine if a new schedule is needed for their social media records. Through 

discussion with agencies and review of the literature, the following list of best practices was compiled:

 

11 “Navy Official: 'Snapshots' Not Good Archiving Plan,” Information Management Journal 46, no. 1 (Jan/Feb 2012): 16,

ProQuest Research Library.

12 Executive Office of the President, “Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People”

(2012), 10, http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/egov/digital-government/digital-government-strategy.pdf. 13 National Archives and Records Administration, “Expanding Acceptable Transfer Requirements: Transfer Instructions for 

Permanent Electronic Records” (2004), Item 4.2.3, http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/web-contentrecords.html. 
National Archives and Records Administration

22 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

Best Practices for Capture

Building a Foundation

1. Institute a social media working group comprised of agency records management staff, web 

managers, social media managers, information technology staff, privacy and information security 

staff, and other relevant stakeholders to create policy and procedures around identifying, managing, 

and capturing social media records.

2. Apply the definition of a Federal record when making agency-specific determinations about social 

media content and what components form a complete record. 

3. Review existing records retention schedules to determine if social media records are covered. In the 

absence of an appropriate records retention schedule, records must be treated as permanent until 

they are scheduled. 

Tools and Methods

1. Evaluate and test the available tools for social media capture to determine if the tools meet your 

needs, budget, and skill level. Agencies may be able to find free or low-cost tools to capture content 

that can then be managed in a recordkeeping system. 

2. Consider using tools that provide transparency related to processes and capture. For example, open 

source tools can be modified by the agency as necessary. 

3. Use the export capabilities that certain platforms have built into their native systems. For example, 

the social networking platform Yammer converts content into CSV files and makes the files available 

for downloading. 

4. Utilize open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to create customized tools that will allow 

appropriate export and download. 

5. Ask the platform provider directly for social media content, such as Twitter. 

Implementation

1. Incorporate specific language regarding capture and availability of content for export into the Terms 

of Service for each new social media platform used.14 

2. Determine and delegate roles and responsibilities for capture on internal and external sites. 

3. Provide training for staff on how and when to use automated and manual capture tools.

4. Provide centralized guidance for the agency from a team of records management and web staff so 

that there is standardization of processes across the agency.

5. Share your lessons learned so that others in the Federal government can benefit from your 

experience.

Agencies assert they want simple, effective, and low-cost solutions for capturing social media records. 

Although there are a number of tools that appear promising, agencies are encouraged to articulate their 

requirements directly to social media providers. NARA does not specifically endorse any tool, but 

agencies can review this white paper’s compiled list of tools and identify ones that meet their specific 

business and records management needs. Because agencies use different platforms and have different 

needs, there is no one-size-fits-all tool for capturing social media records across the Federal 

 

14 See the model Terms of Service agreement at: http://www.howto.gov/sites/default/files/model-amendment-to-tos-forg.doc.
National Archives and Records Administration

23 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

government. 

VII. NARA’s transfer guidance and best practices for formats

The current guidelines Expanding Acceptable Transfer Requirements: Transfer Instructions for 

Permanent Electronic Records Web Content Records specify the requirements for transferring 

permanent web content records to NARA. NARA is currently updating the transfer guidance for 

permanent electronic records which will result in the inclusion of additional acceptable formats. Even if 

the social media records are not permanent the use of sustainable formats can help guarantee 

accessibility for the life of the record (see FAQs About Selecting Sustainable Formats for Electronic 

Records). It is recommended that agencies use tools that capture content with associated metadata so 

that the content remains searchable and retains its functionality. 
24 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

References

1) Government Accountability Office. Federal Agencies Need Policies and Procedures for Managing and 

Protecting Information They Access and Disseminate, GAO-11-605. (June 2011) 

www.gao.gov/new.items/d11605.pdf. 

2) National Archives and Archives Administration. A report on Federal Web 2.0 use and record value. (2010) 

www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/resources/web2.0-use.pdf. 

3) National Archives and Records Administration. “Expanding Acceptable Transfer Requirements: Transfer 

Instructions for Permanent Electronic Records Web Content Records.” (2004) 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/web-content-records.html. 

4) National Archives and Records Administration. “Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Selecting 

Sustainable Formats for Electronic Records.” (2012) http://www.archives.gov/recordsmgmt/initiatives/sustainable-faq.html. 

5) National Archives and Records Administration. “NARA Bulletin: Guidance on managing social media records.” 

(2013) 

6) National Archives and Records Administration. “NARA Guidance on Managing Web Records.” (2005) 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/managing-web-records.html. 

7) National Archives and Records Administration. Records Management Self-Assessment Report. (2011) 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/resources/self-assessment-2011.pdf. 

8) National Archives and Records Administration. NARA Regulations (Subchapter B of 36 Code of Federal

Regulations Chapter XII), 2009. http://www.archives.gov/about/regulations/subchapter/b.html. 

9) “Navy Official: 'Snapshots' Not Good Archiving Plan.” Information Management Journal 46, no. 1 (Jan/Feb 

2012): 16. ProQuest Research Library.

10) U.S. Navy. Navy Command Social Media Handbook. (2010): 3. 

http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/PAO/socialnetwrk/soc_med_hnd_bk.pdf.

Additional Resources

1) American Council for Technology (ACT) and Industry Advisory Council (IAC). “Best Practices of Social Media 

Records Policies.” (2011) 

http://www.actgov.org/knowledgebank/whitepapers/Documents/Shared%20Interest%20Groups/Collaborati

on%20and%20Transformation%20SIG/Best%20Practices%20of%20Social%20Media%20Records%20Policies%

20-%20CT%20SIG%20-%2003-31-11%20%283%29.pdf. 

2) ARMA International. Implications of Web-Based, Collaborative Technologies in Records Management 

(ANSI/ARMA 18-2011). (2011) http://www.arma.org/standards/index.cfm. 

3) Boudreaux, C. “Social Media Governance: Policy Database.” (2012) 

http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php. 

4) Department of Defense. Directive-Type Memorandum (DTM) 09-026 – Responsible and Effective Use of 

Internet-Based Capabilities. (2010) http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/DTM-09-026.pdf. 

5) Federal CIO Council. “Guidelines for secure use of social media by Federal departments and agencies.” (2009) 

http://www.cio.gov/images/site_img/view_document.jpg. 

6) Franks, P. C. How Federal Agencies Can Effectively Manage Records Created Using New Social Media Tools. 

San Jose State University on behalf of the IBM Center for The Business of Government. (2010) 

http://www.businessofgovernment.org/report/how-Federal-agencies-can-effectively-manage-recordscreated-using-new-social-media-tools. 

7) General Services Administration. CIO P 2106.2 GSA Social Media Handbook. (2009) 

http://www.gsa.gov/graphics/staffoffices/socialmediahandbook.pdf. 

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25 Best Practices for the Capture of Social Media Records

8) General Services Administration. “Center for Excellence in Digital Government.” (2012) 

http://www.gsa.gov/portal/category/101991. 

9) General Services Administration. “Social Media Apps.” (2012) 

https://www.apps.gov/cloud/cloud/category_home.do?&c=SA. 

10) GovLoop - Social Network for Government. (2012) http://www.govloop.com/. 

11) Gregory, J. of Social Media Subcouncil. “Gov Social Media Wiki.” (2012) http://govsocmed.pbworks.com/. 

12) Herman, J. “Using Social Media in Government.” (2012) http://www.howto.gov/social-media/using-socialmedia. 

13) Kosar, K.R. Congressional Oversight of Agency Public Communications: Implications of Agency New Media 

Use. (2012) http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42406.pdf. 

14) Krzmarzick, A. “Archiving Social Media-Comprehensive Resources on GovLoop and Beyond.” (2010) 

http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/archiving-social-media.

15) McClure, D. Statement of Dr. David McClure Associate Administrator for Citizen Services and Information 

Technologies, U.S. General Services Administration. (2010) www.gsa.gov/portal/content/158009.

16) National Archives of Australia. “Capturing records.” (2012) http://www.naa.gov.au/recordsmanagement/agency/create-capture-describe/capturing/index.aspx. 

17) National Archives of Australia. “Social media: Another type of Commonwealth record.” (2012) 

http://www.naa.gov.au/records-management/agency/digital/socialmedia/index.aspx. 

18) National Archives and Records Administration. “Implications of Recent Web Technologies for NARA Web 

Guidance.” (2006) http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/web-tech.html.

19) New York State Archives. “Records Advisory: Preliminary Guidance on Social Media.” (2010) 

http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/records/mr_social_media.shtml. 

20) Social Media Subcouncil of the Federal Web Managers Council. “Web 2.0 Governance Policies and Best 

Practices.” (2011) 

http://govsocmed.pbworks.com/w/page/15060450/Web%202%200%20Governance%20Policies%20and%20

Best%20Practices. 

21) Obama, B. Presidential Memorandum - Managing Government Records. (2011) 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/11/28/we-cant-wait-president-signs-memorandummodernize-management-government-. 

22) Office of Management and Budget. Open Government Directive. (2009) 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-06.pdf. 

23) Office of Management and Budget. Memorandum on Social Media, Web-Based Interactive Technologies, and 

the Paperwork Reduction Act. (2010) 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/inforeg/SocialMediaGuidance_04072010.pdf. 

24) Office of the Law Revision Council. Federal Records Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 31). (2012) 

http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/44C31.txt. 

25) Presidential Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. (2009) http://www.whitehouse.gov/thepress-office/transparency-and-open-government. 

26) Sunstein, C. R. Social Media, Web-Based Interactive Technologies, and the Paperwork Reduction Act. (2010) 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/inforeg/SocialMediaGuidance_04072010.pdf. 

27) Wilkins, J. “Social Media Governance: The Policy Part.” (2012) 

http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/Social-Media-Governance-The-Policy-Part-1. 

28) Wilshushen, G.C. Challenges in Federal Agencies’ Use of Web 2.0 Technologies, GAO-10-872T, Statement of 

Gregory C. Wilshusen, Director of Information Security Issues, Testimony before the Subcommittee on 

Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House 

of Representatives. (2010) http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10872t.pdf.