Less than half of NSW public sector agencies have identified the digital information needed to support their high risk business processes, according to a state-wide survey on digital information management.

In a letter to all Chief Executives in the NSW public sector, Jenni Stapleton, Acting Director of NSW State Records warns, "Some of the results from this survey are very concerning, and indicate significant information risks across the NSW public sector."

The survey concludes that "the fact that the majority of public offices are not defining what core information is needed to support short and long term business operations is a critical risk to government, with the potential for long term business ramifications."

It showed that "large numbers of risk-averse organisations are keeping all digital information indefinitely, creating extensive legacy data management issues to resolve in the future.

"Only a small proportion of public offices have deployed strategies to routinely enable long term value information to be maintained and short term value information to be destroyed, but this is a core requirement for a sustainable digital future.

"The costs of keeping all digital information indefinitely are unsustainable. Organisations must implement more risk appropriate means of keeping the information they need for ongoing business needs and routinely destroying the information which is no longer required."

While most high value digital business information will need to outlive the system in which it is presently stored, the survey showed that only 25% of public offices have policies or procedures for migrating their digital information.

Also, many public offices reported that their short-term data backup systems are used as a means to maintain core business and accountability information for the long term.