Smarsh Introduces Groundbreaking Text Message Archiving Solution for Federal Government

Smarsh, enabling organizations to manage the risk and uncover the value within their electronic communications, today introduced Federal Archive, the cloud-based mobile text message archiving solution for federal agencies. The platform is purpose-built to help organizations capture, retain, search and produce employee text messages in support of records preservation, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and litigation preparedness initiatives.

Smarsh has received Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Moderate Authorization for Federal Archive.

Federal Archive is the only text message archiving solution with FedRAMP Authorization available on the market today. Federal agencies are moving from legacy IT to more nimble, cost-effective and secure cloud-based solutions, and working with FedRAMP-Authorized providers enables agencies to save time and money in the vendor diligence process. The FedRAMP program provides a standardized approach for all agencies to conduct security assessment, authorization and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. According to the Office of Management and Budget, any cloud services that hold federal data must be FedRAMP Authorized.

“Federal demand for mobile text message capture and retention is strong and growing, as mobile devices grow more pervasive, and as agencies move to the cloud and must modernize their records retention, compliance and e-discovery programs,” said Brian Cramer, Smarsh CEO. “Federal Archive is the only solution that simplifies the capture, search and production of text messages as well as satisfies the federal government’s complex cloud security requirements.”

The cloud-native Federal Archive leverages the storage and compute resources of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) GovCloud. AWS GovCloud was designed to meet the stringent government security and compliance controls for hosting sensitive Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and regulated workloads.

The Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of State served as the solution’s required sponsor through the FedRAMP Authorization process.

“FedRAMP is the most comprehensive assessment that exists in this sector. The authorization achievement is important for communicating that Smarsh has designed a SaaS offering that meets the robust FedRAMP requirements. As a result of that, it can be leveraged by agency customers for their own authorizations,” said Stephen Halbrook, Principal at Schellman & Company, LLC, which acted as a third-party assessor for Smarsh during the FedRAMP process. “Throughout the assessment process, the Smarsh team was a highly collaborative partner. It was clear to Schellman that the Smarsh team took the time to fully understand FedRAMP and implement the necessary controls and documentation prior to starting the assessment process.”

The Federal Records Act (FRA) requires federal agencies to preserve all electronic records. According to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which oversees the implementation of the FRA, text messages are considered federal records if created or received in the course of agency business.¹ All federal agencies must have plans in place to collect, store, and recover text messages so they can provide mobile text messages in response to records requests. In addition, NARA mandates that all permanent electronic records in federal agencies will be managed electronically to the fullest extent possible for eventual transfer and accessioning by NARA in an electronic format by December 31, 2019.²

With Federal Archive, federal agencies can respond to records requests in record time. The platform enables customers to:

• capture employee mobile text messages with all accompanying metadata directly from leading mobile carriers AT&T and Verizon, and preserve the content in a secure, search-ready repository
• perform simple and complex content searches through an intuitive user interface
• review messages in full conversational context. Messages are threaded and not converted into email format.
• produce only the necessary messages on-demand for secure export
• establish granular, role-based access controls and permissions.

The Federal Archive is available directly through DLT Solutions, a premier government technology solutions aggregator.

Smarsh will expand capturing and archive support for more content types with the Federal Archive. For more information, please visit https://www.smarsh.com/products/connected-archive/federal-archive/.

¹ https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/bulletins/2015/2015-02.html

² https://www.archives.gov/files/records-mgmt/policy/2019-perm-electronic-records-success-criteria.pdf

About Smarsh:

Smarsh is the recognized global leader in electronic communications archiving solutions for regulated organizations. The Smarsh Connected Suite provides innovative capture, archiving, e-discovery, and supervision solutions across the industry’s widest breadth of communication channels.

Scalable for organizations of all sizes, the Smarsh platform provides customers with compliance built on confidence. It enables them to strategically future-proof as new communication channels are adopted, and to realize more insight and value from the data in their archive. Customers strengthen their compliance and e-discovery initiatives, and benefit from the productive use of email, social media, mobile/text messaging, instant messaging and collaboration, web, and voice channels.

Smarsh serves a global client base that spans the top banks in North America and Europe, along with leading brokerage firms, insurers, and registered investment advisors. Smarsh also enables federal and state government agencies to meet their public records and e-discovery requirements. For more information, visit www.smarsh.com.

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