By Client Executive Marcia Spicer
Digitization and cybersecurity are usually treated as separate conversations. One centers on scanners, metadata, searchable files, and access. The other centers on passwords, backups, networks, and breach prevention. For anyone responsible for digital collections, that separation no longer works.
That is why the Digital Preservation Coalition’s new three-part Technology Watch Guidance Note series, Cyber Security and Resilience for Digital Preservation, is worth paying attention to. The message is straightforward: protecting digital collections is part of preserving them.
Archives, museums, libraries, municipalities, families, and organizations now rely on cloud storage, shared drives, online access platforms, and born-digital files. That means preservation planning has to include more than scanning standards and file formats. It also has to address who can access the files, where they are stored, how they are backed up, and what happens if something goes wrong.
Anderson Archival is in a practical position to help with that conversation. We work with collections every day, including physical materials, digitized files, and born-digital records. Through Anderson Technologies, we also have access to a team that understands IT systems, cyber risk, backups, permissions, and recovery planning.
A file is not preserved just because it has been scanned or uploaded. It has to stay findable, usable, trustworthy, and protected.
Why Cybersecurity Belongs in Every Digital Preservation Plan
A digital collection can be well scanned, clearly named, and carefully organized, and still be at risk. Files can be deleted by mistake. A cloud account can be compromised. A staff member can leave with critical knowledge in their head. Ransomware can block access to years of work. An old hard drive or shared folder can become the weak spot no one has checked in years.
For collection stewards, cybersecurity is not just an IT issue. It affects whether digital materials can be trusted, opened, recovered, and protected from changes no one intended or approved.
You do not have to solve every risk at once. Start with the places where confusion, neglect, or outdated habits are most likely to cause trouble. These five steps are a practical starting point.
Five Cybersecurity Tips for Digital Collections
1. Know what you have and where it lives
You cannot protect a collection you cannot find. Start by creating a simple inventory of your digital assets. Include master files, access copies, metadata exports, donor files, databases, external drives, cloud accounts, shared folders, and any born-digital materials waiting to be processed.
For each collection or storage location, record who has access, what types of files are there, whether the files are backed up, and whether any materials are restricted or sensitive. This does not need to be elaborate. A clear spreadsheet is far better than a guess.
2. Limit access to the people who truly need it
Collaboration is part of preservation work, but open-ended access creates risk. Review permissions regularly and remove access when staff, volunteers, vendors, or partners no longer need it. Use individual accounts instead of shared logins when possible and require strong passwords and multi-factor authentication for systems that store or manage collection materials.
Good access control also helps protect the integrity of a collection. It makes it easier to see who changed, moved, or deleted a file and reduces the chance of accidental edits.
3. Keep more than one backup, and test that you can restore from it
Backups matter, but only if they can be restored. Keep more than one copy, store at least one copy separately from your main system, and make sure at least one backup is protected from routine changes or deletion.
Schedule restore tests before there is an emergency. Open sample files, confirm they are complete, and make sure someone knows how to bring them back. A backup that has never been tested is a hope, not a plan.
4. Be cautious with removable media and unprocessed files
Archives and collecting organizations often receive materials on thumb drives, external hard drives, CDs, DVDs, and other removable media. Those carriers may hold valuable history, but they can also introduce malware, corrupted files, obsolete formats, or confusing file structures.
Before connecting donated or legacy media to your network, create a safe intake process. Use a dedicated workstation when appropriate, scan for malware, document what was received, and avoid opening unfamiliar files directly on shared systems. Treat unprocessed digital material with the same caution you would give to fragile physical materials.
5. Bring preservation and IT teams into the same room
Preservation staff understand the collection: what matters, what context needs to be kept, and how the materials will be used. IT and cybersecurity teams understand the systems that store, protect, monitor, and recover those files. Digital preservation needs both.
Set regular conversations between preservation staff, leadership, IT, and outside technology partners. Talk through where collections live, who uses them, which systems support them, which risks are most likely, and what would happen if access were disrupted. These conversations are much easier before a crisis than during one.
Preservation Depends on Protection
Every digitization project carries a responsibility: the materials being preserved today should still be available, understandable, and trustworthy tomorrow. Cybersecurity does not replace good preservation practice. It supports it.
The DPC guidance is a useful reminder that preservation does not end when a scan is complete or a file is uploaded. Long-term access depends on clear responsibilities, safe handling practices, reliable systems, and a recovery plan people can actually use.
For any organization responsible for digital collections, the questions are simple and important: Do we know what we have? Do we know who can access it? Can we recover it if something fails? Have preservation and IT looked at the same risks together?
Anderson Archival helps organizations preserve collections with care and context. Anderson Technologies helps organizations secure and maintain the systems those digital collections depend on. Together, we can help clients move from “we scanned it” to “we know how to protect it, manage it, and recover it.”
Not sure where your digital collections are most vulnerable? We can help you sort through what you have, where it lives, who can access it, and what safeguards are already in place, then recommend practical next steps for keeping your collections protected and usable over time.