Home | Computers | Data Recovery

An introduction to Electronic data discovery

By: kensium

Computers and other electronic devices, equipment and systems are now widely used by nearly everyone, everywhere and for every purpose. Their use in business and industry, particularly large corporations, has brought their importance into focus.

Organizations regularly and routinely record data on electronic media for processing, transmission, storage or other business functions. Today, most such data is in digital form on magnetic media and includes files, databases, e-mail, application files, instant messages, text messages, phone messages and video recordings. It can be easily modified, deleted, over-written and processed in many other ways. One characteristic aspect is that unlike legacy documents on paper, digital data once recorded, cannot be completely and permanently erased.

New and emerging statutes as well as standards for electronically stored information (ESI) require corporations to conform to certain norms. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) as amended in December 2006 specifically relate to ESI and the differences between ESI and paper records. The rules require attorneys to discuss electronic data storage with their adversaries soon after the start of litigation.

Digital records are basically transient in nature – they only exist until changed or deleted – in fact, they are constantly undergoing change. But the law is concerned with data as it exists at a certain moment of time. This presents a formidable challenge to the litigant or his computer forensics expert – to establish what data existed, in what form, at a given point of time in history – for exhibiting as evidence in the court of law: electronic data discovery (electronic evidence discovery, eDiscovery, eDD).
Legal discovery is the process of producing and sharing evidence before a trial. In eDiscovery, electronic data is searched for, located and extracted or reconstructed for use as digital evidence in a legal case. Qualified professional hacking for this same purpose is also a form of eDD.

Highly skilled and ace digital forensics professionals from companies such as the Los Angeles, California based DataTriage Technologies have been providing effective repository creation and management, eDiscovery and litigation support services and assisting and advising large corporations in designing related protocols. Specialist engineers and computer scientists, rather than pure-play legal attorneys and law firms are increasingly being consulted by corporations.

Digital data is vulnerable to spoliation. That is, its withholding, hiding or destruction. In the view of federal and most state laws in the USA, spoliation of evidence is a criminal act with spoliators inviting fines and jail terms. eDD helps in preventing spoliation of evidence, and when it does take place, in reconstructing the original data.
eDiscovery experts collect, interpret and report on electronic data; assist attorneys and case managers in management of eDD components of major cases; provide technical advice to attorneys at deposition; and develop protocols for chains of custody and for prevention of spoliation. They also research eDD issues and advise attorneys, case managers and clients of potential risks.

While eDD has the potential to expose any wrongdoing, it also presents issues of invasion of privacy.

Article Source: Main Articles

Author is an international computer forensics consultant. He is president of Data Triage Technologies, LLC.(www.datatriage.com), a Computer forensics and Electronic discovery firm based in Los Angeles, California .

This article may be reproduced wholly or in part without written permission provided the byline, resource area, and any hyperlinks remain in order to give proper credit to the author.

Internet search engines and directory listings are imperative to your sites existence and success. Submit Your Website to the Searchen Networks directory and search engine to achieve authoritive inbound links.

Please Rate this Article

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Data Recovery Articles Via RSS!

Additional Articles From - Home | Computers | Data Recovery

Remote Data Backups Could Save The Day - By : Ken Needles
Repairing Outlook Express Mail Database - By : Eugine Kharinskiy
Device Lock’s central data repository - By : Suresh Kumar
Hard Disk Recovery Made Easy - By : Nik Kaufman
Microsoft Outlook PST repair tool - By : Recovery Toolbox Inc
ZIP repair software tool - By : Recovery Toolbox Inc
Technician Data Recovery Evaluation - By : bozenaj
Offsite Backup Companies Store - By : bozenaj
Electronic Data Discovery Approach and Process - By : fortunewords
Choosing the Best Software for Corporate Backup - By : Alexander Golishev

	Print This Article
	Post Comment
	Add To Favorites
	Email to Friends
	Ezine Ready

	Submit Articles
	Member Login
	Top Authors
	Most Popular Articles
	Submission Guidelines
	Ezine Notifications
	Article RSS Feeds

	New Stuff
	About Us
	Link to Us
	Contact Us
	Privacy Policy
	Terms of Service

:: Top Author Businesses:

Try your luck, Play BlackJack

:: Our Supporters: