Electronic data can only be secured on a long term basis if it is constantly monitored as to its legibility, and that it is migrated to the various new systems before it is too late. We have yet to face the core of this problem: An organised strategy of long term conservation of electronic communication has not kept pace with the introduction of electronic comminication in public administration. If radical efforts are not made to organise effective long-term conservation of electronic data, we shall have to accept the fact that future historians will have far fewer primary sources from our day and age at their disposal than in earlier times.