Posted by admin on February 18th, 2010
Computer Forensics
The field of computer forensics was developed primarily by law enforcement personnel for investigating drug and financial crimes. It employs strict protocols to gather information contained on a wide variety of electronic devices, using forensic procedures to locate deleted files and hidden information.
Computer forensics tasks include capturing all the information contained on a specific electronic device by using either a forensic copy technique or by making an image of all or a portion of the device. A forensic copy provides an exact duplicate of the hard drive or storage device. None of the metadata, including the ?last accessed date,?is changed from the original. However, the copy is a ?live?version, so accessing the data on the copy,even only to ?see what is there,?can change this sensitive metadata.
By contrast, making a forensic image of the required information puts a protective electronic wrapper around the entire collection. The collection can be viewed with special software, and the documents can be opened, extracted from the collection, and examined without changing the files or their metadata.
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Posted by admin on October 23rd, 2009
The Information Management Journal/September / October 2007- Today?s explosion of electronic data, coupled with the December 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) concerning electronically stored information (ESI), requires information and legal professionals to expand their knowledge about handling electronic discovery. The recent changes to the FRCP include:
* Definitions and safe harbor provisions for the routine alterations of electronic files during routine operations such as back ups [Amended Rule 37(f)]
* Information about how to deal with data that is not reasonably accessible [Amended Rule 26(b)(2)(B)]
* How to deal with inadvertently produced privileged material [Amended Rule 26(b)(5)]
* ESI preservation responsibilities and the pre-trial conference. [Amended Rule 26(f)]
* Electronic file production requests [Amended Rules 33(d), 34, 26(f)(3), 34(b)(iii)]
There are many opinions about how ESI should be planned for, managed, organized, stored, and retrieved. Some of the available options are extremely costly in terms of their required financial and time commitments. Constantly changing technologies only add to the confusion. One area of confusion is the distinction between computer forensics and electronic discovery; there is a significant difference. These are described in the sidebar Computer Forensics vs. Electronic Discovery.
Making the Right Choices
Successfully responding to e-discovery within the constraints of the amended FRCP requires organizations to make many critical decisions that will affect the collection and processing of ESI.
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Posted by admin on October 14th, 2009
The Information Management Journal/September / October 2007- Today’s explosion of electronic data, coupled with the December 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) concerning electronically stored information (ESI), requires information and legal professionals to expand their knowledge about handling electronic discovery. The recent changes to the FRCP include:
* Definitions and safe harbor provisions for the routine alterations of electronic files during routine operations such as back ups [Amended Rule 37(f)]
* Information about how to deal with data that is not reasonably accessible [Amended Rule 26(b)(2)(B)]
* How to deal with inadvertently produced privileged material [Amended Rule 26(b)(5)]
* ESI preservation responsibilities and the pre-trial conference. [Amended Rule 26(f)]
* Electronic file production requests [Amended Rules 33(d), 34, 26(f)(3), 34(b)(iii)]
There are many opinions about how ESI should be planned for, managed, organized, stored, and retrieved. Some of the available options are extremely costly in terms of their required financial and time commitments. Constantly changing technologies only add to the confusion. One area of confusion is the distinction between computer forensics and electronic discovery; there is a significant difference. These are described in the sidebar Computer Forensics vs. Electronic Discovery.
Read the rest of this entry »
