Guide for Mapping Types of Information and Information Systems to Security Categories, Volume 2: Appendices
Section 4.2.3 and 4.4.2. > Information > C.3.5 Information and Technology Management > C.3.5.6 Record Retention Information Type

C.3.5.6 Record Retention Information Type

Records Retention involves the operations surrounding the management of the official
documents and records for an agency. Subject to exception conditions described below, the
recommended security categorization for the record retention information type is as follows:
Security Category = {(confidentiality, Low), (integrity, Low), (availability, Low)}
The confidentiality impact level is the effect of unauthorized disclosure of record retention
information on the ability of responsible organizations to store, track, account for, maintain,
retrieve, and disseminate official documents and records. When the data being retained belongs
to one of the information types described in this guideline, the confidentiality impact assigned
the data and system is at least that of the highest impact information type collected. Typically,
the unauthorized disclosure of most business management information retained will have only a
limited adverse effect on agency operations, assets, or individuals. National security information
and national security systems are outside the scope of this guideline.
Special Factors Affecting Confidentiality Impact Determination: Where more sensitive information is
involved, it will most commonly be personal information subject to the Privacy Act of 1974 or
information that is proprietary to a corporation or other organization. The Privacy Act
Information provisional impact levels are documented in the Personal Identity and
Authentication information type. Such information will often be assigned a moderate
confidentiality impact level. Where any of the information to be collected can reasonably be
expected to have a high confidentiality impact level, then the record retention system must be
assigned a high confidentiality impact level. In some cases, the impact assessment should
consider that the aggregate of information retained might have a higher confidentiality impact
than any individual information element.
Recommended Confidentiality Impact Level: The provisional confidentiality impact level
recommended for record retention information is low.
not on the time required to detect the modification or destruction of information.
Special Factors Affecting Integrity Impact Determination: Where integrity compromise adversely
affects the ability of an organization to access its records or results in erroneous back-up
information or archives, the impact on agency operations can be serious. In such cases, the
integrity impact level would be moderate. In the case of large-scale archives or archives
involving key national assets (e.g., national archives), the integrity impact can be particularly
severe and the impact level would be high.
Recommended Integrity Impact Level: The provisional integrity impact level recommended for
record retention information is low.
mission, not on the time required to re-establish access to record retention information.
Functions and processes supported by most record retention information are not time-critical.
Record retention processes are generally tolerant of reasonable delays. In most cases,
disruption of access to record retention information can be expected to have only a limited
adverse effect on agency operations, agency assets, or individuals.
Not many business management systems perform functions for which temporary loss of
availability can cause significant degradation in mission capability, place the agency at a
significant disadvantage, result in major damage to assets, or pose a threat to human life.
Recommended Availability Impact Level: The provisional availability impact level recommended for
record retention information is low.