Submitted: May 20, 2020
Categories: New NOAA Tools for Storing and Transmitting Sensitive Data
Guest blog submitted by: Mark H. Graff, FOIA Officer/Bureau Chief Privacy Officer (BCPO)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has made additional tools available for storing and transmitting sensitive data within the bureau’s Google environment, as well as easing access to the Kiteworks tool. NOAA users are now allowed to store and transmit sensitive, non-public information within the bureau’s Google Drive and Gmail environment, provided that that information is not shared with anyone outside of the noaa.gov domain. Additionally, Kiteworks continues to be an acceptable alternative for the transmission and storage of Sensitive personally identifiable information (PII), both internal and external to the noaa.gov domain. Kiteworks is now available via Common Access Card (CAC) single sign-on (SSO).
These revisions allow NOAA to leverage the enterprise use of the Google suite which provides real-time collaboration, innovative work solutions, and leverages an unlimited email storage capability. NOAA has tailored its use of this technology to coordinate with the Google platform’s encryption capabilities, which are needed to protect Sensitive PII and business identifiable information (BII).
By using Google’s offerings for the storage and transmission of sensitive information, including sensitive PII and BII, we will directly improve our ability to prevent, monitor, detect, and respond to Privacy incidents, and we will improve our role as stewards of the sensitive data we maintain.
Questions and Comments
Send Questions or Comments on the Commerce Office of Privacy and Open Government programs to PrivacyAct@doc.gov.
Office of Privacy and Open Government
Office of the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration
U.S. Department of Commerce
Page last updated: August 23, 2021
