The following types of records management controls are needed to ensure that Federal records in electronic information systems can provide adequate and proper documentation of agency business for as long as the information is needed. Agencies must incorporate controls into the electronic information system or integrate them into a recordkeeping system that is external to the information system itself (see §1236.20 of this part).

(a) Reliability: Controls to ensure a full and accurate representation of the transactions, activities or facts to which they attest and can be depended upon in the course of subsequent transactions or activities.

(b) Authenticity: Controls to protect against unauthorized addition, deletion, alteration, use, and concealment.

(c) Integrity: Controls, such as audit trails, to ensure records are complete and unaltered.

(d) Usability: Mechanisms to ensure records can be located, retrieved, presented, and interpreted.

(e) Content: Mechanisms to preserve the information contained within the record itself that was produced by the creator of the record;

(f) Context: Mechanisms to implement cross-references to related records that show the organizational, functional, and operational circumstances about the record, which will vary depending upon the business, legal, and regulatory requirements of the business activity; and

(g) Structure: controls to ensure the maintenance of the physical and logical format of the records and the relationships between the data elements.