&gt;What exactly is the difference between systems and standards and policies and procedures?<p>Policies and procedures are paper based sets of instructions. I.e. the 4th amendment.<p>Systems and standards are electrically programmed. I.e. encryption.<p>It is the difference between saying &quot;this should not be done&quot; and actually designing a system in which it cannot be done.<p>&gt;&quot;The mere existence of the &quot;police state&quot; anywhere is the sure sign of old arrangements being propped up by newer forms that have already rendered the older forms irrelevant.&quot;<p>-Marshall McLuhan, Take Today: The Executive as Dropout