The allure of mobility calls out to all lawyers. But while we enjoy the opportunity to compute remotely, do not not forget a potential downside: the vulnerability of client and law firm data.
Even the smartest lawyer can get flustered at a crowded TSA checkpoint, or jostled in a Manhattan taxi. Mobile devices are small and lightweight , which is great -- but small and light also means they can drop out of pockets or slide from purses. And small and light also makes them easy prey for nimble pickpockets.
So what happens if you lose control of your device and it has critical, confidential data on it? Worst-case scenario, you could jeopardize a client's case, lose your job, or give an identity thief a jackpot and spend months repairing your credit. None are risks worth taking.
ENCRYPTION
The good news is one single word: encryption. Laptop users have the most encryption options, but some products also can be used to secure USB drives, smartphones and PDAs. You can encrypt either your entire computer or some of the files on it.
If you aren't yet comfortable with "whole disk" encryption, you can bite off your data security challenge in smaller pieces.
Your operating system's data encryption may limit you to file system-level encryption. If you use Microsoft's Windows 2000, XP or most Vista operating systems, you have the encrypting file system, although it is limited to non-system files and folders.
Similarly, Apple users of FileVault can only encrypt their home folder on their primary drive. When you are logged in, your EFS or FileVault encrypted files are accessible to you and to anyone with whom you have shared them.
So you may want to turn to third-party software, such as PGP Corp.'s PGP Desktop Professional and TrueCrypt Foundation's namesake open source product, that enhance file system-level encryption. For example, you can create a TrueCrypt "volume" that looks like a single file on your hard drive. When you "mount" it, it appears as a virtual disk drive which you can use like any other storage drive.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Law.com
By: David Whelan
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Query from an Associated Press reporter
This should be a good article as the subject matter is extremely relevant within the world of eDiscovery these days. If anyone has war stories or information they are able to share with Dan please reach out to him at the contact below. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
-Bob
I'm a reporter with the Associated Press doing a story on electronic discovery. I'm focusing primarily on obstacles that e-discovery presents for both plaintiffs and defendants who don't have deep pockets, but also on the implications of e-discovery for the judicial system overall.
I'm searching for real-world examples to use in my story in which the cost of e-discovery (actual or expected) affected the outcome of a case in any way: by prompting a settlement on less-than-optimal terms, by forcing a plaintiff to drop a case (or dissuading him or her from filing it in the first place), by forcing a defendant to settle a meritless case, etc.
If you have been involved in such a case and have a client who would be willing to speak to me, I would love to hear from you. The AP tries to avoid using unnamed sources, so my first choice is to have someone identified by name, but in some circumstances I may be able to persuade my editors to allow me to cite someone anonymously.
Thank you.
Dan Elliott
Associated Press, Denver
Office 303-825-0123
Cell 720-984-5944
delliott@ap.org
-Bob
I'm a reporter with the Associated Press doing a story on electronic discovery. I'm focusing primarily on obstacles that e-discovery presents for both plaintiffs and defendants who don't have deep pockets, but also on the implications of e-discovery for the judicial system overall.
I'm searching for real-world examples to use in my story in which the cost of e-discovery (actual or expected) affected the outcome of a case in any way: by prompting a settlement on less-than-optimal terms, by forcing a plaintiff to drop a case (or dissuading him or her from filing it in the first place), by forcing a defendant to settle a meritless case, etc.
If you have been involved in such a case and have a client who would be willing to speak to me, I would love to hear from you. The AP tries to avoid using unnamed sources, so my first choice is to have someone identified by name, but in some circumstances I may be able to persuade my editors to allow me to cite someone anonymously.
Thank you.
Dan Elliott
Associated Press, Denver
Office 303-825-0123
Cell 720-984-5944
delliott@ap.org
Why Examination Protocols Are Problematic
Forensic examination lays bare a user's computer activity. Personal, confidential and privileged communications, sexual misadventure, financial and medical record keeping, proprietary business data and other sensitive information are all exposed.
In the white-picket-fenced places where active data lives, you can tiptoe around privileged and private information; but deleted data hails from the wrong side of the digital tracks, where there are no names, no addresses and no rules.
Forensic examiners see it all, including confidential materials that can't be shared. Courts impose examination protocols to limit the intrusiveness, scope and conduct of the work and establish who can see the outcome. It takes technical expertise to design a good protocol. Without it, you get protocols that are forensic examinations in name only, impose needless costs and cumbersome obligations or simply elide over what the examiner is expected to do.
The perils of protocols are seen in Ferron v. Search Cactus, LLC, et al. 2008 WL 1902499 (S.D. Ohio Apr. 28, 2008), a pro se action by an attorney seeking damages for unsolicited spam e-mail. Claiming Ferron solicited the spam via his Web surfing, the defendants wanted their computer forensic examiner to inspect Ferron's home and office computers and, specifically, whether he visited particular Web sites. Although Ferron preserved his e-mail in anticipation of suit, he didn't act to preserve other Internet usage.
On first blush, tracking Internet usage sounds simple because a tech-savvy user can access the ever-changing browser history files, temporary Internet file cache and cookie directory without specialized tools. But in a Microsoft Internet Explorer environment, the most revealing and complete record of Internet activity isn't accessible without the tools and training to locate and interpret it.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
--------------------------------------------
Source: Law.com
By: Craig Ball
In the white-picket-fenced places where active data lives, you can tiptoe around privileged and private information; but deleted data hails from the wrong side of the digital tracks, where there are no names, no addresses and no rules.
Forensic examiners see it all, including confidential materials that can't be shared. Courts impose examination protocols to limit the intrusiveness, scope and conduct of the work and establish who can see the outcome. It takes technical expertise to design a good protocol. Without it, you get protocols that are forensic examinations in name only, impose needless costs and cumbersome obligations or simply elide over what the examiner is expected to do.
The perils of protocols are seen in Ferron v. Search Cactus, LLC, et al. 2008 WL 1902499 (S.D. Ohio Apr. 28, 2008), a pro se action by an attorney seeking damages for unsolicited spam e-mail. Claiming Ferron solicited the spam via his Web surfing, the defendants wanted their computer forensic examiner to inspect Ferron's home and office computers and, specifically, whether he visited particular Web sites. Although Ferron preserved his e-mail in anticipation of suit, he didn't act to preserve other Internet usage.
On first blush, tracking Internet usage sounds simple because a tech-savvy user can access the ever-changing browser history files, temporary Internet file cache and cookie directory without specialized tools. But in a Microsoft Internet Explorer environment, the most revealing and complete record of Internet activity isn't accessible without the tools and training to locate and interpret it.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
--------------------------------------------
Source: Law.com
By: Craig Ball
Canada: Preservation Of E-Documents: The Legal Obligation
Introduction
By now, we have all been inundated with fears of Zubulake-type damages if we don't properly preserve and produce metadata; or our client's claim will be struck if we don't advise them to preserve the back-up tapes to their computer system. "E-discovery is changing the landscape of litigation", the fear-mongers shout. Well, yes and no.
It is undeniable that the proliferation of electronically stored information ("ESI") in today's business environment makes your 3-hole punch a less utilized tool than it was 10 years ago. And it is incumbent on all counsel to be aware of the differences associated with the preservation and production of ESI vs. paper records. But, like many issues in the law, once you decode the jargon, you will find that the basic legal principles are not that different. At their core, the preservation obligations for ESI mirror the conventional obligations for paper records. You just need to be attuned to the characteristics of ESI that demand earlier and more detailed attention than the dusty boxes of documents sitting in your client's warehouse.
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the preservation obligations of ESI according to the most recent guidelines and judicial pronouncements. It will describe the potential sanctions for failing to properly preserve relevant ESI. Finally, the paper addresses the best practices to avoid any such sanctions.
The "Old School" Preservation Obligation
In Alberta, litigants' obligation to preserve documents is governed by the Alberta Rules of Court and the common law.
Rules 186 - 87 of the Alberta Rules of Court provide the obligation for parties to produce "records" in the "possession, custody or power" of the party that are "relevant and material" to the issues in a lawsuit.
These rules also govern the production of ESI. Rule 186 defines "record" as including "... the physical representation or record of any information, data or other thing that is or is capable of being represented or reproduced visually or by sound, or both".
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: Mondaq News
By: Jerry J. Patterson
By now, we have all been inundated with fears of Zubulake-type damages if we don't properly preserve and produce metadata; or our client's claim will be struck if we don't advise them to preserve the back-up tapes to their computer system. "E-discovery is changing the landscape of litigation", the fear-mongers shout. Well, yes and no.
It is undeniable that the proliferation of electronically stored information ("ESI") in today's business environment makes your 3-hole punch a less utilized tool than it was 10 years ago. And it is incumbent on all counsel to be aware of the differences associated with the preservation and production of ESI vs. paper records. But, like many issues in the law, once you decode the jargon, you will find that the basic legal principles are not that different. At their core, the preservation obligations for ESI mirror the conventional obligations for paper records. You just need to be attuned to the characteristics of ESI that demand earlier and more detailed attention than the dusty boxes of documents sitting in your client's warehouse.
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the preservation obligations of ESI according to the most recent guidelines and judicial pronouncements. It will describe the potential sanctions for failing to properly preserve relevant ESI. Finally, the paper addresses the best practices to avoid any such sanctions.
The "Old School" Preservation Obligation
In Alberta, litigants' obligation to preserve documents is governed by the Alberta Rules of Court and the common law.
Rules 186 - 87 of the Alberta Rules of Court provide the obligation for parties to produce "records" in the "possession, custody or power" of the party that are "relevant and material" to the issues in a lawsuit.
These rules also govern the production of ESI. Rule 186 defines "record" as including "... the physical representation or record of any information, data or other thing that is or is capable of being represented or reproduced visually or by sound, or both".
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: Mondaq News
By: Jerry J. Patterson
Monday, November 24, 2008
IBM to Validate Resiliency of Cloud Computing Infrastructures
Will Consult With Businesses of All Sizes to Ensure Resiliency, Availability, Security; Drive Adoption of New Technology
In a move that could spur the rise of the nascent computing model known as "cloud," IBM (IBM:) today said it would introduce a program to validate the resiliency of any company delivering applications or services to clients in the cloud environment. As a result, customers can quickly and easily identify trustworthy providers that have passed a rigorous evaluation, enabling them to more quickly and confidently reap the business benefits of cloud services.
Cloud computing is a model for network-delivered services, in which the user sees only the service and does not view the implementation or infrastructure required for its delivery. The success to date of cloud services like storage, data protection and enterprise applications, has created a large influx of new providers. However, unpredictable performance and some high-profile downtime and recovery events with newer cloud services have created a challenge for customers evaluating the move to cloud.
IBM's new "Resilient Cloud Validation" program will allow businesses who collaborate with IBM on a rigorous, consistent and proven program of benchmarking and design validation to use the IBM logo: "Resilient Cloud" when marketing their services.
Operating the most data centers in the world, IBM has delivered remote technology services to clients for decades and has developed strict standards for service quality -- from infrastructure design to process excellence. Through its new Resilient Cloud Validation program, IBM's Business Continuity and Resiliency Services unit will build on its 40-year history of eliminating downtime in the most demanding business environments to help cloud service providers meet the highest standards of resiliency. In addition, IBM Research has developed end-to-end tools for assessment and discovery within a customer's configuration, modeling, ROI analysis, optimization and migration to a highly virtualized cloud environment.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
------------------------------------------
Source: Marketwatch
In a move that could spur the rise of the nascent computing model known as "cloud," IBM (IBM:) today said it would introduce a program to validate the resiliency of any company delivering applications or services to clients in the cloud environment. As a result, customers can quickly and easily identify trustworthy providers that have passed a rigorous evaluation, enabling them to more quickly and confidently reap the business benefits of cloud services.
Cloud computing is a model for network-delivered services, in which the user sees only the service and does not view the implementation or infrastructure required for its delivery. The success to date of cloud services like storage, data protection and enterprise applications, has created a large influx of new providers. However, unpredictable performance and some high-profile downtime and recovery events with newer cloud services have created a challenge for customers evaluating the move to cloud.
IBM's new "Resilient Cloud Validation" program will allow businesses who collaborate with IBM on a rigorous, consistent and proven program of benchmarking and design validation to use the IBM logo: "Resilient Cloud" when marketing their services.
Operating the most data centers in the world, IBM has delivered remote technology services to clients for decades and has developed strict standards for service quality -- from infrastructure design to process excellence. Through its new Resilient Cloud Validation program, IBM's Business Continuity and Resiliency Services unit will build on its 40-year history of eliminating downtime in the most demanding business environments to help cloud service providers meet the highest standards of resiliency. In addition, IBM Research has developed end-to-end tools for assessment and discovery within a customer's configuration, modeling, ROI analysis, optimization and migration to a highly virtualized cloud environment.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
------------------------------------------
Source: Marketwatch
E-Discovery – Preservation Means Knowing When to Hold 'Em
There is a distinction between application- and system-specific litigation tools and newer e-discovery litigation-hold software
In the court case Consolidated Aluminum v. Alco, the defendant suffered monetary sanctions for failing to properly apply litigation holds. In spite of the fact that Alco had a litigation hold policy in place, someone was asleep at the wheel. There were several serious issues: Alco issued the holds after litigation had begun, did not make the holds broad enough, and did not enforce holds when key employees deleted relevant data.
One of the federal rules of civil procedure's strictures requires that companies demonstrate consistent litigation hold practices. This does not mean that litigation holds must be issued willy-nilly. No one (with the possible exception of opposing counsel) believes that a company must lock up all its active data in case of potential relevance, no matter how slight. However, litigation holds do come into serious play when looming litigation is "reasonably anticipated" and when data has high potential relevance, no matter where it may be located.
This area is another example where human oversight and e-discovery technology can and should work together. Attorneys and IT should work together to decide what electronically stored information (ESI) should be retained for upcoming discovery actions, which individuals have custody of the relevant ESI, and where the files are located -- fileshares, email servers, archives, laptops. Once these decisions are made, then the firm can use e-discovery tools to search for and hold the relevant data.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-------------------------------------------
Source: ByteandSwitch
By: Christine Taylor
In the court case Consolidated Aluminum v. Alco, the defendant suffered monetary sanctions for failing to properly apply litigation holds. In spite of the fact that Alco had a litigation hold policy in place, someone was asleep at the wheel. There were several serious issues: Alco issued the holds after litigation had begun, did not make the holds broad enough, and did not enforce holds when key employees deleted relevant data.
One of the federal rules of civil procedure's strictures requires that companies demonstrate consistent litigation hold practices. This does not mean that litigation holds must be issued willy-nilly. No one (with the possible exception of opposing counsel) believes that a company must lock up all its active data in case of potential relevance, no matter how slight. However, litigation holds do come into serious play when looming litigation is "reasonably anticipated" and when data has high potential relevance, no matter where it may be located.
This area is another example where human oversight and e-discovery technology can and should work together. Attorneys and IT should work together to decide what electronically stored information (ESI) should be retained for upcoming discovery actions, which individuals have custody of the relevant ESI, and where the files are located -- fileshares, email servers, archives, laptops. Once these decisions are made, then the firm can use e-discovery tools to search for and hold the relevant data.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-------------------------------------------
Source: ByteandSwitch
By: Christine Taylor
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Getting Search Engine Optimization Right
On Aug. 13th, a techie blogger named Oilman posted an article entitled, "Shame Shame Shame Findlaw," accusing the legal behemoth of violating Google's guidelines. Within hours, Findlaw was pilloried by the search engine optimization blogosphere. Terms like "ethical violations," "multimillion dollar business models," "potential lawsuits" and "scamming" were bandied about. Google dropped FindLaw's page rank from a 7 to a 5. Popular legal blogger Kevin O'Keefe outlined a course of action for Findlaw, which called for public disclosure, refunds and apologies.
The controversy unveiled Findlaw's SEM Advantage program -- which was essentially an agreement to sell a link from FindLaw.com to a law firm's Web site for up to $2,500 a month for the sole purpose of improving that site's search results. This is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines, which state: "Buying or selling links that pass Page Rank is in violation of Google's Webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results."
What happened? What is search engine optimization anyway? What was the big deal?
Search engine optimization is the fine and very competitive art of positioning a Web page to rank high for a specific phrase submitted to search engines. Ranking is simply the order in which the search results appear -- with the top three positions accounting for approximately 70 percent of all clicks. Ranking first on Google for a highly competitive term like "Chicago DUI Lawyer" can bring a massive volume of highly qualified prospects to a law firm. Because the upside is so big, firms spend thousands of dollars on SEO consultants, third-party applications and interactive agencies to reach and maintain their position at the top.
Search engines compete amongst each other on their ability to guide users to relevant content. The search engines, therefore, reward those Web pages that provide useful content to their consumers with high rankings. To understand how to get the most out of search engine optimization, it is important to learn how search engines catalogue and evaluate trillions of Web pages to determine which one is most relevant to a given search query.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-------------------------------------------
Source: Law.com
By Conrad Saam
The controversy unveiled Findlaw's SEM Advantage program -- which was essentially an agreement to sell a link from FindLaw.com to a law firm's Web site for up to $2,500 a month for the sole purpose of improving that site's search results. This is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines, which state: "Buying or selling links that pass Page Rank is in violation of Google's Webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results."
What happened? What is search engine optimization anyway? What was the big deal?
Search engine optimization is the fine and very competitive art of positioning a Web page to rank high for a specific phrase submitted to search engines. Ranking is simply the order in which the search results appear -- with the top three positions accounting for approximately 70 percent of all clicks. Ranking first on Google for a highly competitive term like "Chicago DUI Lawyer" can bring a massive volume of highly qualified prospects to a law firm. Because the upside is so big, firms spend thousands of dollars on SEO consultants, third-party applications and interactive agencies to reach and maintain their position at the top.
Search engines compete amongst each other on their ability to guide users to relevant content. The search engines, therefore, reward those Web pages that provide useful content to their consumers with high rankings. To understand how to get the most out of search engine optimization, it is important to learn how search engines catalogue and evaluate trillions of Web pages to determine which one is most relevant to a given search query.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-------------------------------------------
Source: Law.com
By Conrad Saam
2008 ABA Tech Survey Sees More Mobility
The "2008 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report" suggests that an increasing number of attorneys have found a way to bridge the "work/life" gap: They're going mobile. The report is the latest from the American Bar Association's Legal Technology Resource Center, which has surveyed practicing attorneys for more than a decade. This year, findings are presented in six volumes, including the new "Baseline and Budgets."
In 2008, we noted substantial increases in the availability and use of mobile devices, including both laptops and smartphones. Many attorneys are using laptops as their primary computer, and courtrooms are seeing more mobile devices. While these developments may not decrease the overall workload of typical attorneys, they can certainly help attorneys decide where -- and when -- they work.
PRIMARY COMPUTER
Laptops offer attorneys the flexibility to work in the office or to take their work with them wherever they go. For the "Law Office Technology" volume, respondents were asked to identify their primary computer at work. Overall, 35 percent cited laptops, a jump from 29 percent in 2007; including 51 percent of attorneys at large firms (100 or more attorneys). In the "Mobile Lawyers" volume, respondents were asked how often and where they use laptops outside the office. Home (65 percent) was followed by hotels (37 percent) and airports (18 percent).
While relatively few attorneys regularly use their laptops in client offices or in opposing or co-counsel offices (7 percent each), they're far more likely to use PDAs, smartphones and BlackBerrys in those locations: 56 percent in opposing counsel offices and 51 percent in co-counsel offices.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-------------------------------------------
Source: Law.com
By Catherine Sanders Reach & Josh Poje
In 2008, we noted substantial increases in the availability and use of mobile devices, including both laptops and smartphones. Many attorneys are using laptops as their primary computer, and courtrooms are seeing more mobile devices. While these developments may not decrease the overall workload of typical attorneys, they can certainly help attorneys decide where -- and when -- they work.
PRIMARY COMPUTER
Laptops offer attorneys the flexibility to work in the office or to take their work with them wherever they go. For the "Law Office Technology" volume, respondents were asked to identify their primary computer at work. Overall, 35 percent cited laptops, a jump from 29 percent in 2007; including 51 percent of attorneys at large firms (100 or more attorneys). In the "Mobile Lawyers" volume, respondents were asked how often and where they use laptops outside the office. Home (65 percent) was followed by hotels (37 percent) and airports (18 percent).
While relatively few attorneys regularly use their laptops in client offices or in opposing or co-counsel offices (7 percent each), they're far more likely to use PDAs, smartphones and BlackBerrys in those locations: 56 percent in opposing counsel offices and 51 percent in co-counsel offices.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Law.com
By Catherine Sanders Reach & Josh Poje
Friday, November 21, 2008
Psystar case reveals Apple's shaky e-mail retention policy
Apple has sold enterprise-class storage hardware and software for years, but the company has yet to embrace systematic e-mail and document retention policies that are common among publicly traded companies.
According to a recent legal filing (page 7) in the Psystar vs Apple antitrust case, Apple employees are responsible for maintaining their own documents such as e-mails, memos, and voicemails. In other words, there is no company-wide policy for archiving, saving, or deleting these documents
This could pose a problem in the event of a lawsuit. In recent years, companies have been fined millions after failing to retrieve old emails and other files required as evidence. The fear of fines and other sanctions has resulted in many companies instituting strict “e-discovery” retention policies, and has helped give rise to a new class of enterprise-class storage and indexing tools.
An e-discovery lawyer, who asked not to be named because his employer (a firm you probably have heard of) doesn’t want him speaking to the press, explained the basic legal requirements surrounding email and document retention to The Standard. “If litigation is anticipated, the party has a duty to preserve potentially relevant documents,” he said.
“An employee retention program with no organization or coordination is effectively incapable of compliance,” he continued, “barring an act of God, or luck akin to picking every game right in an NCAA pool. Apple’s retention policy is negligent.”
Consider this scenario: Employees could have e-mails from five years ago that become “potentially relevant”, but because there was no policy in place regarding e-documents, those records could easily become destroyed—making it potentially impossible for a plaintiff to make a case from internal documents.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-------------------------------------------
Source: macworld.com
According to a recent legal filing (page 7) in the Psystar vs Apple antitrust case, Apple employees are responsible for maintaining their own documents such as e-mails, memos, and voicemails. In other words, there is no company-wide policy for archiving, saving, or deleting these documents
This could pose a problem in the event of a lawsuit. In recent years, companies have been fined millions after failing to retrieve old emails and other files required as evidence. The fear of fines and other sanctions has resulted in many companies instituting strict “e-discovery” retention policies, and has helped give rise to a new class of enterprise-class storage and indexing tools.
An e-discovery lawyer, who asked not to be named because his employer (a firm you probably have heard of) doesn’t want him speaking to the press, explained the basic legal requirements surrounding email and document retention to The Standard. “If litigation is anticipated, the party has a duty to preserve potentially relevant documents,” he said.
“An employee retention program with no organization or coordination is effectively incapable of compliance,” he continued, “barring an act of God, or luck akin to picking every game right in an NCAA pool. Apple’s retention policy is negligent.”
Consider this scenario: Employees could have e-mails from five years ago that become “potentially relevant”, but because there was no policy in place regarding e-documents, those records could easily become destroyed—making it potentially impossible for a plaintiff to make a case from internal documents.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-------------------------------------------
Source: macworld.com
'Jacobsen' Gives Legs to Open Source
In the Aug. 13 opinion in Jacobsen v. Katzer, 2008-1001, 2008 WL 3395772, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that violation of an open source license constitutes copyright infringement rather than a breach of contract. In so holding, the Federal Circuit rejected the notion that the free and unlimited nature of open source software licenses mandates that provisions of these licenses be construed as covenants, the violation of which would constitute breach of contract, rather than conditions that give rise to a claim of infringement. Specifically, the court held:
"Copyright holders who engage in open source licensing have the right to control the modification and distribution of copyrighted material. ... The choice to extract consideration in the form of compliance with the open source requirements of disclosure and explanation of changes, rather than as a dollar-denominated fee, is entitled to no less legal recognition."
The Federal Circuit's holding in Jacobsen opens the door for open source copyright holders to seek injunctive relief for violation of the open source license.
Although the language of the decision is clear, the scope and precedential impact of Jacobsen remain uncertain. Although there have been no official reports of any proceedings having been commenced, some have speculated that a petition for certiorari could be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court that if granted might result in the Jacobsen ruling being overturned or modified.
Even absent modification by subsequent review, the impact of the Jacobsen ruling remains somewhat uncertain. The Federal Circuit does not normally rule on copyright issues; a procedural oddity brought the Jacobsen case before the court. Furthermore, the Federal Circuit's ruling was based in part on the text of the license at issue (focusing on the language "provided that," which is typically regarded as imposing a condition) and the meaning of its key terms under California law. However, at the very least, the decision extends a level of recognition to open source software that may influence subsequent rulings on the issue.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Law.com
By F. Kopeikin and Sabir Ibrahim
"Copyright holders who engage in open source licensing have the right to control the modification and distribution of copyrighted material. ... The choice to extract consideration in the form of compliance with the open source requirements of disclosure and explanation of changes, rather than as a dollar-denominated fee, is entitled to no less legal recognition."
The Federal Circuit's holding in Jacobsen opens the door for open source copyright holders to seek injunctive relief for violation of the open source license.
Although the language of the decision is clear, the scope and precedential impact of Jacobsen remain uncertain. Although there have been no official reports of any proceedings having been commenced, some have speculated that a petition for certiorari could be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court that if granted might result in the Jacobsen ruling being overturned or modified.
Even absent modification by subsequent review, the impact of the Jacobsen ruling remains somewhat uncertain. The Federal Circuit does not normally rule on copyright issues; a procedural oddity brought the Jacobsen case before the court. Furthermore, the Federal Circuit's ruling was based in part on the text of the license at issue (focusing on the language "provided that," which is typically regarded as imposing a condition) and the meaning of its key terms under California law. However, at the very least, the decision extends a level of recognition to open source software that may influence subsequent rulings on the issue.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Law.com
By F. Kopeikin and Sabir Ibrahim
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Searching Beyond Google
Get out of the rut with specialized databases that might turn up the results you need
Web site usage statistics suggest that people are in a search rut. Most Web searching uses just a few providers -- okay, basically one, Google. But no one site can give access to everything. Luckily, there is a wide selection of Web search tools available for the person who wants to shake things up and get some new insights into her research.
For example, there is the vast virtual territory nicknamed the "invisible Web." It refers to databases connected to the Web but not necessarily available for indexing by normal search engines. But each of these sites has its own search capability, and you can generally find them through normal Web searches. By combining the phrase "search engine" with the topic name that interests you, a search engine can find the home pages that offer interfaces to the data. (In fact, the Web site run by the parent company of Corporate Counsel, law.com, has a comprehensive search function.) Looking for specialized information on steel? Check for "steel search engines" and, among others, find Steelonthenet.com's Ferrosearch search engine that indexes thousands of steel industry Web sites. You get focused results and forgo having to wade through thousands of irrelevant results. In fact, searching on Google for the phrase "specialized search engines" will turn up at least a half-dozen collections of them on the opening page of the search results.
Meta-engines provide the search equivalent of an information mall. These sites submit search terms simultaneously to a number of individual search engines and then combine all the results. Although there are standbys like Dogpile, there are some interesting alternatives. Intelways, for one, can search a collection of engines that would be overwhelming except that you can choose subsets by such search categories as news, video, images, reference, academic, business or technology. Clusty collects information from a number of sites, presenting the list of pages on the right, but also identifies categories, or clusters, on the left-hand side of the window. You can narrow the context of your search by clicking on one of the clusters and getting only that set of results. Similarly, ZapMeta searches Yahoo, Google, Microsoft Live Search, Ask and others, and produces one set of results on the left with a set of expandable applicable categories on the right.
Although search engines may be the first choice, consider trying a directory, which arranges Web pages into categories. Yahoo Directory is the king of commercial offerings. Type your keywords, and see what site categories appear. Not only might you find a category that is an exact match for what you need, but the category names themselves may suggest additional ways of conducting a Web search through different or related expressions. Possibly more useful is the Internet Public Library. A consortium of universities and colleges with information science programs maintains a high-quality collection of resources organized by category. Volunteer librarians keep things relevant and current.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: law.com
By: Erik Sherman
Web site usage statistics suggest that people are in a search rut. Most Web searching uses just a few providers -- okay, basically one, Google. But no one site can give access to everything. Luckily, there is a wide selection of Web search tools available for the person who wants to shake things up and get some new insights into her research.
For example, there is the vast virtual territory nicknamed the "invisible Web." It refers to databases connected to the Web but not necessarily available for indexing by normal search engines. But each of these sites has its own search capability, and you can generally find them through normal Web searches. By combining the phrase "search engine" with the topic name that interests you, a search engine can find the home pages that offer interfaces to the data. (In fact, the Web site run by the parent company of Corporate Counsel, law.com, has a comprehensive search function.) Looking for specialized information on steel? Check for "steel search engines" and, among others, find Steelonthenet.com's Ferrosearch search engine that indexes thousands of steel industry Web sites. You get focused results and forgo having to wade through thousands of irrelevant results. In fact, searching on Google for the phrase "specialized search engines" will turn up at least a half-dozen collections of them on the opening page of the search results.
Meta-engines provide the search equivalent of an information mall. These sites submit search terms simultaneously to a number of individual search engines and then combine all the results. Although there are standbys like Dogpile, there are some interesting alternatives. Intelways, for one, can search a collection of engines that would be overwhelming except that you can choose subsets by such search categories as news, video, images, reference, academic, business or technology. Clusty collects information from a number of sites, presenting the list of pages on the right, but also identifies categories, or clusters, on the left-hand side of the window. You can narrow the context of your search by clicking on one of the clusters and getting only that set of results. Similarly, ZapMeta searches Yahoo, Google, Microsoft Live Search, Ask and others, and produces one set of results on the left with a set of expandable applicable categories on the right.
Although search engines may be the first choice, consider trying a directory, which arranges Web pages into categories. Yahoo Directory is the king of commercial offerings. Type your keywords, and see what site categories appear. Not only might you find a category that is an exact match for what you need, but the category names themselves may suggest additional ways of conducting a Web search through different or related expressions. Possibly more useful is the Internet Public Library. A consortium of universities and colleges with information science programs maintains a high-quality collection of resources organized by category. Volunteer librarians keep things relevant and current.
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Source: law.com
By: Erik Sherman
The mobile device INVESTIGATOR'S TOOLBOX
What works best for newbies, what requires more training, and how to tell the difference
These days, virtually every major criminal activity leaves evidence — images, text messages, call records and more — on mobile devices. Yet for the investigator who knows only the basics or less about how to recover this evidence, building a strong case can be difficult — especially after the evidence has been deleted.
State or regional digital forensics labs are frequently overworked and understaffed, while many agencies lack the resources for the training and equipment to support an in-house expert. A good compromise is to train non-expert forensic analysts or investigators to recover essential evidence. However, those who wish to take part in more complex mobile forensics need to know first that mobile forensics is as complicated as computer forensics — and has many of its own challenges. Many tools exist to aid data recovery efforts, but they demand plenty of training and educational support.Cost challenges
Cost can be a significant challenge to smaller agencies, but SEARCH computer crime training specialist Keith Daniels says the investment in a tool like Cellebrite UFED (See "Data recovery tools" on Page 30) can be well worth it. Not only does it have unparalleled support, it's also easy to learn and use.
Cellebrite works quickly enough (15 to 20 minutes) to be used in emergencies, such as with missing persons. "It works so quickly on the street," says Daniels. "It can be a life-saving device." He finds it so useful that he counsels investigators in agencies with limited resources to pool funds with other investigative units to buy it.
If this is not possible, detectives are encouraged to find out whether they can join with a local or regional task force. In California, five task forces are available. "Investigators send phones to us for help," says Brian Farnsworth, an investigator with the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force. "If they find they're getting inundated by mobile evidence, they can join the task force and have access to our resources."
However, not all task forces have the same tools. "In Sacramento Valley, we had to buy most of what's available because we had so much coming in," says Farnsworth. Investigators with no task force at their disposal can apply for grants, such as from the federal Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) program, to start one of their own.
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Source: officer.com
These days, virtually every major criminal activity leaves evidence — images, text messages, call records and more — on mobile devices. Yet for the investigator who knows only the basics or less about how to recover this evidence, building a strong case can be difficult — especially after the evidence has been deleted.
State or regional digital forensics labs are frequently overworked and understaffed, while many agencies lack the resources for the training and equipment to support an in-house expert. A good compromise is to train non-expert forensic analysts or investigators to recover essential evidence. However, those who wish to take part in more complex mobile forensics need to know first that mobile forensics is as complicated as computer forensics — and has many of its own challenges. Many tools exist to aid data recovery efforts, but they demand plenty of training and educational support.Cost challenges
Cost can be a significant challenge to smaller agencies, but SEARCH computer crime training specialist Keith Daniels says the investment in a tool like Cellebrite UFED (See "Data recovery tools" on Page 30) can be well worth it. Not only does it have unparalleled support, it's also easy to learn and use.
Cellebrite works quickly enough (15 to 20 minutes) to be used in emergencies, such as with missing persons. "It works so quickly on the street," says Daniels. "It can be a life-saving device." He finds it so useful that he counsels investigators in agencies with limited resources to pool funds with other investigative units to buy it.
If this is not possible, detectives are encouraged to find out whether they can join with a local or regional task force. In California, five task forces are available. "Investigators send phones to us for help," says Brian Farnsworth, an investigator with the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force. "If they find they're getting inundated by mobile evidence, they can join the task force and have access to our resources."
However, not all task forces have the same tools. "In Sacramento Valley, we had to buy most of what's available because we had so much coming in," says Farnsworth. Investigators with no task force at their disposal can apply for grants, such as from the federal Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) program, to start one of their own.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: officer.com
Pro-active E-Discovery Strategies Can Minimize Risk
E-discovery strategies are critical for enterprises in a world of rising litigation, bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions, and increased regulation, argues CMS Watch, an independent analyst firm that has just released a unique, half-day online course, "The Fundamentals of E-Discovery."
CMS Watch logoFor those enterprises that do not have a proactive e-discovery strategy in place, getting hit with a lawsuit or regulatory action means a costly search for information needles in very large haystacks.
"Ideally an e-discovery strategy should not be reactive, but rather proactive by employing proper records management and e-mail archiving policies and procedures," notes CMS Watch Principal Alan Pelz-Sharpe. "But, many if not most enterprises don't know where to start," adds Pelz-Sharpe.
"The Fundamentals of E-Discovery" course lays out the proper ways to build a successful e-discovery process, and offers advice on which key technical considerations to evaluate when selecting an e-discovery tool.
"The course can help you get quickly up-to-speed on how to go about setting up and launching an e-discovery strategy," said CMS Watch Analyst Jarrod Gingras. "Because we are entirely vendor-neutral with no solutions to sell, we provide a trusted, independent source to fill the knowledge gap."
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Source: emediawire.com
CMS Watch logoFor those enterprises that do not have a proactive e-discovery strategy in place, getting hit with a lawsuit or regulatory action means a costly search for information needles in very large haystacks.
"Ideally an e-discovery strategy should not be reactive, but rather proactive by employing proper records management and e-mail archiving policies and procedures," notes CMS Watch Principal Alan Pelz-Sharpe. "But, many if not most enterprises don't know where to start," adds Pelz-Sharpe.
"The Fundamentals of E-Discovery" course lays out the proper ways to build a successful e-discovery process, and offers advice on which key technical considerations to evaluate when selecting an e-discovery tool.
"The course can help you get quickly up-to-speed on how to go about setting up and launching an e-discovery strategy," said CMS Watch Analyst Jarrod Gingras. "Because we are entirely vendor-neutral with no solutions to sell, we provide a trusted, independent source to fill the knowledge gap."
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: emediawire.com
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
How IT can lead the financial services industry
In the face of an ongoing credit crisis, industry experts from JP Morgan Chase and PricewaterhouseCoopers hype the need for stronger influence from technology professionals. CA says better IT governance, risk and compliance tools are key.
LAS VEGAS - There isn’t a single financial services company in the world that isn’t more dependent on technology today than they were a year ago, according to former JP Morgan Chase & Co. CIO Austin Adams. He advised IT leaders to take advantage of today’s economic climate and use technology to bring business units together.
“There has never been a better time for CIOs and other technology leaders to show that technology can add business value,” Adams said. “Executive managers are much more willing to listen to IT folks nowadays. The question is are we going to do anything to add value or just focus cutting costs?”
Adams joined industry experts from IDC Corp., PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC, and CA Inc., for a panel discussion at CAWorld 2008 to share IT management best practices for banks and other financial service companies during the global recession. Nearly every panelist agreed that implementing measures that allow for better collaboration between IT and other business units will be important throughout the crisis.
“Sometimes we forget that we’re the only ones that understand our technology,” Tom Vicknair. chairman of the Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) at JP Morgan Chase, said. “We have to learn to help the business unit.”
“We have to come up with a model where both business and IT really work together on things and how to better leverage technology during these times.”
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Source: itworldcanada.com
Economic Downturn Underscores Need for Proactive Measures To Safeguard Data and Minimize Risk
Coral Gables, FL (PRWEB) November 19, 2008 -- As the economic outlook declines, crime increases. And, for the business community, those who do not take action to protect their most valuable commodity - Information - the results can be devastating. In addition, with the U.S. unemployment rate at its highest in 20 years, the risk to data security is increased exponentially, as hackers are more desperate to gain access into networks.
The U.S. Department of Labor has warned that 93% of businesses that experience a significant data loss go out of business within five years. "Of those companies 43% go out of business within the first year, and 72% go out in the second year," according to the Disaster Recovery Journal, a leading publication dedicated to the importance of contingency planning in the event of an disastrous occurrence.
"While identity theft is on the rise and has received the most significant amount of media attention, this is just one of many areas where companies are vulnerable," says Silka Gonzalez, president/founder of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). "As security, regulations and privacy issues increase, today's businesses must face the daunting task of managing risks. The best way to ensure that a business stays on top of potential security problems is to take measures before a breach occurs."
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Source: prweb.com
ONSITE and Clearwell Enable Clients to Strike the Right Balance Between In-House and Hosted E-Discovery Solutions
ONSITE(TM), a leading global provider of electronic evidence solutions for law firms and corporations, and Clearwell Systems, a leader in intelligent e-discovery, today announced a dramatic increase in cross-platform efficiency that enables clients to achieve a balanced approach between in-house and hosted e-discovery solutions.
This exciting new capability will enable clients to conduct early case assessment, defensible search, and intelligent culling in-house using the Clearwell E-Discovery Platform®; and then rapidly move potentially responsive results into ONSITE’s eView(TM) document review platform. Clients will be able to quickly and directly control the transfer of electronic data from the Clearwell E-Discovery Platform into eView while maintaining all tags, folder structures, and notes.
"It is critical that our firm be able to scale our e-discovery workflow process quickly, particularly as case response timeframes accelerate and data sizes grow," said Daniel Gelb, attorney, Gelb & Gelb LLP. "The ability to immediately conduct early case assessment, search and analysis—and then continue to manage the e-discovery process for review through production— is crucial for effective advocacy throughout the litigation."
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Source: biz.yahoo.com
This exciting new capability will enable clients to conduct early case assessment, defensible search, and intelligent culling in-house using the Clearwell E-Discovery Platform®; and then rapidly move potentially responsive results into ONSITE’s eView(TM) document review platform. Clients will be able to quickly and directly control the transfer of electronic data from the Clearwell E-Discovery Platform into eView while maintaining all tags, folder structures, and notes.
"It is critical that our firm be able to scale our e-discovery workflow process quickly, particularly as case response timeframes accelerate and data sizes grow," said Daniel Gelb, attorney, Gelb & Gelb LLP. "The ability to immediately conduct early case assessment, search and analysis—and then continue to manage the e-discovery process for review through production— is crucial for effective advocacy throughout the litigation."
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Source: biz.yahoo.com
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Thanks to gamers, the desktop supercomputer arrives
Nvidia's graphics processing power produces a (relatively) inexpensive HPC, the Tesla Personal Supercomputer
The definition of a personal supercomputer goes something like this: It's inexpensive, can sit on a desk, plugs into a wall socket and is at least within jumping distance of the Top500 supercomputing list. By that measure, Nvidia Corp.'s new computer is one of the first arrivals in this emerging product category.
Nvidia today unveiled a workstation it calls the Tesla Personal Supercomputer at the Supercomputing 08 show here. The Tesla sports 960 cores, delivers almost 4 teraflops of performance and costs less than $9,995. It achieves that speed and price by using four graphics processing units (GPU), each of which has 240 cores.
"This really is the supercomputer on your desk," Dell Inc. CEO Michael Dell told attendees at the conference, which drew more than 10,000 science and commercial high-performance computing users, along with a slew of vendors hoping that the high-performance computing (HPC) market will be a bright spot in otherwise difficult tech economy. The attendance was a new record for this annual conference.
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Source: Computerworld
By: Patrick Thibodeau
The definition of a personal supercomputer goes something like this: It's inexpensive, can sit on a desk, plugs into a wall socket and is at least within jumping distance of the Top500 supercomputing list. By that measure, Nvidia Corp.'s new computer is one of the first arrivals in this emerging product category.
Nvidia today unveiled a workstation it calls the Tesla Personal Supercomputer at the Supercomputing 08 show here. The Tesla sports 960 cores, delivers almost 4 teraflops of performance and costs less than $9,995. It achieves that speed and price by using four graphics processing units (GPU), each of which has 240 cores.
"This really is the supercomputer on your desk," Dell Inc. CEO Michael Dell told attendees at the conference, which drew more than 10,000 science and commercial high-performance computing users, along with a slew of vendors hoping that the high-performance computing (HPC) market will be a bright spot in otherwise difficult tech economy. The attendance was a new record for this annual conference.
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Source: Computerworld
By: Patrick Thibodeau
Pittsburgh attorney at forefront of ediscovery, the hottest area of law
E-discovery, the latest buzz word in the legal industry, is the new tool of trial lawyers seeking to find “smoking gun” electronic evidence pertinent to a case.
This month some 300 attorneys attended a conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center that explored how technology is changing legal practice.
Pittsburgh attorney David Cohen, a partner in the Pittsburgh office of K&L Gates, co-chaired that conference, and is on the forefront of e-discovery, the gathering of electronically stored information like e-mail, databases and other computer files for civil and criminal cases.
As a co-chair of the firms’ e-Discovery Analysis & Technology Group, Cohen travels the country helping to bring organizations up to speed on e-discovery tactics.
“E-discovery is one of the hottest areas in law,” says Cohen, who counsels companies and presents training seminars on records management, e-mail sensitivity and e-discovery readiness. “This isn’t something that is yet taught in law schools. Many firms are just now starting separate departments for e-discovery.”
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Source: popcitymedia.com
By: Deb Smit
This month some 300 attorneys attended a conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center that explored how technology is changing legal practice.
Pittsburgh attorney David Cohen, a partner in the Pittsburgh office of K&L Gates, co-chaired that conference, and is on the forefront of e-discovery, the gathering of electronically stored information like e-mail, databases and other computer files for civil and criminal cases.
As a co-chair of the firms’ e-Discovery Analysis & Technology Group, Cohen travels the country helping to bring organizations up to speed on e-discovery tactics.
“E-discovery is one of the hottest areas in law,” says Cohen, who counsels companies and presents training seminars on records management, e-mail sensitivity and e-discovery readiness. “This isn’t something that is yet taught in law schools. Many firms are just now starting separate departments for e-discovery.”
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: popcitymedia.com
By: Deb Smit
E-Discovery Requests Loom Large for Financial Services Firms
E-Discovery Requests Loom Large for Financial Services Firms
As regulators delve into firms' archives to try to pin down responsibility for the current financial meltdown, experts anticipate that litigation will rise sharply. The FBI already announced that it is investigating Freddie Mac, AIG and Lehman, and it is expected that countless other firms will be asked to produce data to support other investigations.
Vivian Tero, program manager for compliance infrastructure at research firm IDC, says e-discovery already has risen on Wall Street's priority list. "The selling cycle [for e-discovery products and services] has become shorter. The need is immediate -- firms have regulators breathing down their backs," she explains. "Many companies are very worried and concerned, and want systems to respond [to potential e-discovery requests]."
Litigation is on the rise, confirms Rob Brunner, senior managing director in the technology practice at FTI Consulting. "We've already been seeing a lot of class action lawsuits and shareholder lawsuits," he says.
Brunner suggests it is particularly important for firms that are merging or acquiring other companies in the current meltdown to prepare themselves for e-discovery requests. But given the urgency with which mergers and acquisitions are occurring lately, that is a considerable challenge, he acknowledges.
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Source: wallstreetandtech.com
By: Melanie Rodier
As regulators delve into firms' archives to try to pin down responsibility for the current financial meltdown, experts anticipate that litigation will rise sharply. The FBI already announced that it is investigating Freddie Mac, AIG and Lehman, and it is expected that countless other firms will be asked to produce data to support other investigations.
Vivian Tero, program manager for compliance infrastructure at research firm IDC, says e-discovery already has risen on Wall Street's priority list. "The selling cycle [for e-discovery products and services] has become shorter. The need is immediate -- firms have regulators breathing down their backs," she explains. "Many companies are very worried and concerned, and want systems to respond [to potential e-discovery requests]."
Litigation is on the rise, confirms Rob Brunner, senior managing director in the technology practice at FTI Consulting. "We've already been seeing a lot of class action lawsuits and shareholder lawsuits," he says.
Brunner suggests it is particularly important for firms that are merging or acquiring other companies in the current meltdown to prepare themselves for e-discovery requests. But given the urgency with which mergers and acquisitions are occurring lately, that is a considerable challenge, he acknowledges.
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Source: wallstreetandtech.com
By: Melanie Rodier
Three Law Firms Tackle Data Quality
There may be no client relationship management project quite as challenging as data migration and de-duplication. If approached without a plan, it can be a daunting, seemingly endless task that drains firm resources. But in reality, data quality isn't a task -- it's an ongoing project.
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Source: law.com
By: Chris Fritsch
Three law firms tackled these issues, and learned valuable lessons, during recent rollouts of
ContactEase, a client relationship management program from Cole Valley Software. Each firm took a very different approach, and their experiences offer many lessons:- Detroit-based Clark Hill, with 180 attorneys, 147 support staff and five offices.
- Ulmer & Berne, with 185 attorneys, 250 support staff and four offices, headquartered in Cleveland.
- Omaha, Neb.'s Baird Holm, with 75 attorneys, 75 support staff and one office.
ARMS AND LEGS
Clark Hill chose a manual data quality process. Jim Henderson, manager of client services, says his firm went "arms and legs" to avoid committing additional funds to the CRM rollout.
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Source: law.com
By: Chris Fritsch
Monday, November 17, 2008
Federal Court lags on e-discovery
The Federal Court has delayed rules to introduce new technology that could slash millions of dollars from litigation bills.
The court was set to introduce practice note 17 by mid-year to make the process of discovery in litigation more efficient by using technology to reduce the amount of paper in cases and speed up sharing of documents among legal parties.
The revised guidelines, first flagged more than 15 months ago, have now been pushed back to early next year.
A draft practice note and related materials were finalised by consultant Jo Sherman and referred to the court's National Practice Committee mid-year.
It's understood the application of the new rules was delayed because some judges and lawyers were concerned about their ability to cope with increased technology demands.
"There seems to be an unhappiness, or at least disconnect, between what the Federal Court expected to see from the consultant and what the court would deliver," one source close to the process said.
In the meantime, the court is using nine-year-old guidelines for the use of technology in civil litigation.
Electronic discovery goes far beyond traditional paper record discovery or information held on company systems.
It includes email, instant messaging, voicemail and voice over internet protocol communications, files held on laptops, handheld devices and mobile phones, PowerPoint, Portable Document Format, video and audio files, and storage devices such as USB drives, discs and even iPods.
The court dismissed comments that the guidelines were delayed because of the industry's fear of new technology.
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Source: australianit.news.com.au
By: Mahesh Sharma
The court was set to introduce practice note 17 by mid-year to make the process of discovery in litigation more efficient by using technology to reduce the amount of paper in cases and speed up sharing of documents among legal parties.
The revised guidelines, first flagged more than 15 months ago, have now been pushed back to early next year.
A draft practice note and related materials were finalised by consultant Jo Sherman and referred to the court's National Practice Committee mid-year.
It's understood the application of the new rules was delayed because some judges and lawyers were concerned about their ability to cope with increased technology demands.
"There seems to be an unhappiness, or at least disconnect, between what the Federal Court expected to see from the consultant and what the court would deliver," one source close to the process said.
In the meantime, the court is using nine-year-old guidelines for the use of technology in civil litigation.
Electronic discovery goes far beyond traditional paper record discovery or information held on company systems.
It includes email, instant messaging, voicemail and voice over internet protocol communications, files held on laptops, handheld devices and mobile phones, PowerPoint, Portable Document Format, video and audio files, and storage devices such as USB drives, discs and even iPods.
The court dismissed comments that the guidelines were delayed because of the industry's fear of new technology.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: australianit.news.com.au
By: Mahesh Sharma
E-Discovery – How You Search Can Save Money & Time
The collection phase of e-discovery can proceed smoothly and return more useful results if you use the right tools
The third of a six-part series on e-discovery from the Taneja Group .
There is a cautionary tale in the case of Metro Wastewater Reclamation v. Alfa Laval. The defendant in a breach of contract case requested that the plaintiff produce all electronically stored information (ESI) in reference to several of the plaintiff's employees. The plaintiff was to search for all relevant digital files from email, backup and archive, and fileshares. The plaintiff protested that the request imposed an unreasonable burden, but the court ruled that the request was highly endemic to the case and therefore reasonable. The plaintiff had to cough up the documents in an expensive manual search.
If Metro Wastewater Reclamation had run advanced e-discovery search tools against their content, then they would have lifted their own burden. In fact, today search and access is more critical than ever before for e-discovery, and the ability to do so proactively can be a key advantage in court. In the course of litigation, attorneys confer at the pre-trial Rule 26(f) stage to establish the parameters for e-discovery activities. Attorneys who are armed with detailed knowledge of what information will be generated by which e-discovery queries are better prepared than their opponents.
In the example of Metro Wastewater, a simple keyword search would have returned documents with the names of the affected employees. But they would be presented to reviewers as a large and unwieldy meaningless mass of files and email whose only distinction is that they reference an employee’s name. Document management systems, networked fileshares, copies of emails, active files, and archived files -- all connected with user names, all without context. However, if the plaintiff had been able to search in context with reasonable and demonstrable search terms, then they could have met their discovery burden faster, better, and much less expensively.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: byteandswitch.com
By: Christine Taylor
The third of a six-part series on e-discovery from the Taneja Group .
There is a cautionary tale in the case of Metro Wastewater Reclamation v. Alfa Laval. The defendant in a breach of contract case requested that the plaintiff produce all electronically stored information (ESI) in reference to several of the plaintiff's employees. The plaintiff was to search for all relevant digital files from email, backup and archive, and fileshares. The plaintiff protested that the request imposed an unreasonable burden, but the court ruled that the request was highly endemic to the case and therefore reasonable. The plaintiff had to cough up the documents in an expensive manual search.
If Metro Wastewater Reclamation had run advanced e-discovery search tools against their content, then they would have lifted their own burden. In fact, today search and access is more critical than ever before for e-discovery, and the ability to do so proactively can be a key advantage in court. In the course of litigation, attorneys confer at the pre-trial Rule 26(f) stage to establish the parameters for e-discovery activities. Attorneys who are armed with detailed knowledge of what information will be generated by which e-discovery queries are better prepared than their opponents.
In the example of Metro Wastewater, a simple keyword search would have returned documents with the names of the affected employees. But they would be presented to reviewers as a large and unwieldy meaningless mass of files and email whose only distinction is that they reference an employee’s name. Document management systems, networked fileshares, copies of emails, active files, and archived files -- all connected with user names, all without context. However, if the plaintiff had been able to search in context with reasonable and demonstrable search terms, then they could have met their discovery burden faster, better, and much less expensively.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: byteandswitch.com
By: Christine Taylor
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Deduplication: A Quick Fix or The Way Forward for Storage?
Having engulfed the IT team, the data avalanche is set to hit the wider business. Organizations now have to impose restrictions on email inboxes and local storage facilities because of the amount of data being produced by users across the network.
The problem may feel insurmountable; however a key way of reducing data is to examine how much information is simply replicated by multiple users. With standardized operating systems and applications, come thousands of identical files on legions of computers. Add to that identical attachments stored in multiple recipients’ inboxes and it’s easy to see how much duplicate documents add to an organization's storage requirements.
Unless organizations want to risk facing an all-engulfing data avalanche, the amount of data being stored has to be reduced, or managed more efficiently. Vendors have been quick to address this critical pain point; however it’s unclear as to whether these technologies have the capacity to cope with new developments in data such as bigger file sizes, multimedia formats and distributed data. Unless the situation is evaluated now, companies may find themselves left with a quick-fix solution that could quickly leave them in the same position as before.
Deduplication – A Lasting Solution? Deduplication has quickly risen to the top of the IT agenda as a method to help reduce storage and power costs through streamlining the amount of information needing to be backed up. It also helps to address issues such as business continuity, e-discovery and compliance requests.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: itworld.com
By: David Asher
The problem may feel insurmountable; however a key way of reducing data is to examine how much information is simply replicated by multiple users. With standardized operating systems and applications, come thousands of identical files on legions of computers. Add to that identical attachments stored in multiple recipients’ inboxes and it’s easy to see how much duplicate documents add to an organization's storage requirements.
Unless organizations want to risk facing an all-engulfing data avalanche, the amount of data being stored has to be reduced, or managed more efficiently. Vendors have been quick to address this critical pain point; however it’s unclear as to whether these technologies have the capacity to cope with new developments in data such as bigger file sizes, multimedia formats and distributed data. Unless the situation is evaluated now, companies may find themselves left with a quick-fix solution that could quickly leave them in the same position as before.
Deduplication – A Lasting Solution? Deduplication has quickly risen to the top of the IT agenda as a method to help reduce storage and power costs through streamlining the amount of information needing to be backed up. It also helps to address issues such as business continuity, e-discovery and compliance requests.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: itworld.com
By: David Asher
Group seeks records on missing White House e-mails
How did White House e-mails go missing? A federal appeals court is cool to the idea of forcing the Bush administration to reveal records that might explain what happened.
During a half-hour-long argument Friday, the three-judge panel suggested that the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to the records, a signal that the court would allow the documents to remain confidential.
The judges seemed dismissive of the argument that the White House office housing the records had responded to other FOIA requests for many years, until it was sued a year and a half ago in the e-mail controversy.
Judge Thomas Griffith expressed doubt that the White House's previous position is legally significant.
"Why does it matter? ... They made a mistake," Griffith told Anne Weismann, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
For nearly three years, the White House has revealed little about the difficulties with its e-mail system, which may have resulted in the loss of millions of electronic messages.
The problems first surfaced during the investigation of the leak of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA employee, when prosecutors sought e-mails from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Associated Press
During a half-hour-long argument Friday, the three-judge panel suggested that the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to the records, a signal that the court would allow the documents to remain confidential.
The judges seemed dismissive of the argument that the White House office housing the records had responded to other FOIA requests for many years, until it was sued a year and a half ago in the e-mail controversy.
Judge Thomas Griffith expressed doubt that the White House's previous position is legally significant.
"Why does it matter? ... They made a mistake," Griffith told Anne Weismann, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
For nearly three years, the White House has revealed little about the difficulties with its e-mail system, which may have resulted in the loss of millions of electronic messages.
The problems first surfaced during the investigation of the leak of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA employee, when prosecutors sought e-mails from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Associated Press
Web Tracking Company Sued Over Privacy Claims
Angry online subscribers who had their Web surfing habits tracked in detail are suing a Silicon Valley startup that created the controversial technology and six Internet service providers that briefly used it.
The 15 customers who filed the lawsuit in federal court here Monday demand more than $5 million in damages and are asking a judge to turn the case into a class action representing tens of thousands Internet subscribers.
The lawsuit targets Redwood City-based NebuAd, which developed a product that allowed Internet service providers to peer deeply into the content of their customers' Web surfing traffic. The idea was that the ISPs use the technology to develop detailed advertisements specifically targeted to individual subscribers and enabling the ISPs to start reeping advertising revenue that now flows mostly to companies such as Google. NebuAd technicians attached the company's hardware onto ISPs' data hubs and then reported the results to the ISPs.
"Like a vacuum cleaner, everything passing through the pipe of the consumers' internet connection was sucked up, copied and forwarded to the California processing center," stated the lawsuit, which accuses NebuAd and the ISPs of breaking federal and state privacy laws.
Several U.S. ISPs tried out the technology, but most have withdrawn as privacy advocates and members of Congress raised concerns over the summer.
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Source: law.com
By: Paul Elias
The 15 customers who filed the lawsuit in federal court here Monday demand more than $5 million in damages and are asking a judge to turn the case into a class action representing tens of thousands Internet subscribers.
The lawsuit targets Redwood City-based NebuAd, which developed a product that allowed Internet service providers to peer deeply into the content of their customers' Web surfing traffic. The idea was that the ISPs use the technology to develop detailed advertisements specifically targeted to individual subscribers and enabling the ISPs to start reeping advertising revenue that now flows mostly to companies such as Google. NebuAd technicians attached the company's hardware onto ISPs' data hubs and then reported the results to the ISPs.
"Like a vacuum cleaner, everything passing through the pipe of the consumers' internet connection was sucked up, copied and forwarded to the California processing center," stated the lawsuit, which accuses NebuAd and the ISPs of breaking federal and state privacy laws.
Several U.S. ISPs tried out the technology, but most have withdrawn as privacy advocates and members of Congress raised concerns over the summer.
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Source: law.com
By: Paul Elias
Metadata Presents an Ethical Dilemma
By producing an electronic document in discovery, you may breach the attorney-client privilege, according to an ethics opinion regarding metadata issued by the District of Columbia Bar. That opinion is one of a handful of ethics opinions regarding metadata that have been decided nationwide. Attorneys must familiarize themselves with this developing and sometimes contradictory body of law to avoid potential ethics violations and ensure they protect their clients.
METADATA DEFINED
Metadata is information hidden in certain types of electronic documents and is automatically generated by document processing and spreadsheet programs. It includes information regarding the creation and revision of electronic documents, including the name of the document's authors, the amount of time spent drafting the document and hidden text comments. Deliberately searching for and viewing metadata is known as "mining." Mining can be as simple as viewing a document's properties or as sophisticated as viewing the document with special software designed for that purpose.
While much metadata may be unimportant, certain metadata, like comments made during the revision process, can include attorney-client communications and other protected information. For example, associates often draft answers to interrogatories and then have comments or changes made electronically by both a partner and the client. The original draft answers and subsequent comments may contain privileged or confidential information. Although the electronically transmitted final answers would be "clean" on their face, the metadata contained in the electronic copy could reveal that information.
Thus, metadata can prove to be invaluable evidence. Metadata was used to capture Dennis Rader, the infamous "BTK" serial killer. Rader sent the police anonymous letters in electronic format regarding murders he committed. The metadata in the letters led police to discover Rader's identity, which resulted in his arrest and conviction.
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Source: law.com
By: Kenneth R. Meyer and Genevieve Spires
METADATA DEFINED
Metadata is information hidden in certain types of electronic documents and is automatically generated by document processing and spreadsheet programs. It includes information regarding the creation and revision of electronic documents, including the name of the document's authors, the amount of time spent drafting the document and hidden text comments. Deliberately searching for and viewing metadata is known as "mining." Mining can be as simple as viewing a document's properties or as sophisticated as viewing the document with special software designed for that purpose.
While much metadata may be unimportant, certain metadata, like comments made during the revision process, can include attorney-client communications and other protected information. For example, associates often draft answers to interrogatories and then have comments or changes made electronically by both a partner and the client. The original draft answers and subsequent comments may contain privileged or confidential information. Although the electronically transmitted final answers would be "clean" on their face, the metadata contained in the electronic copy could reveal that information.
Thus, metadata can prove to be invaluable evidence. Metadata was used to capture Dennis Rader, the infamous "BTK" serial killer. Rader sent the police anonymous letters in electronic format regarding murders he committed. The metadata in the letters led police to discover Rader's identity, which resulted in his arrest and conviction.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: law.com
By: Kenneth R. Meyer and Genevieve Spires
Old Habits Persist in Virtual Security
Virtualization has transcended being a novelty buzzword, or a noble computing experiment, and is now a resource used by corporate and law firm IT departments. It promises everything from a higher return on IT investment to a greener environment by simply consolidating several computer systems onto less hardware.
The grandiose promises of virtualization may lend support to the results of InformationWeek's Virtualization Report ("The New Sprawl: Managing Virtual Server Environments" Analytics Report, April 2008) that surveyed 323 IT professionals and found that approximately 15 percent of them do not already use a primary virtualization platform. This suggests that approximately 85 percent of the respondents currently employ some type of virtualization which, by any measure, is a high rate of adoption for the technology.
The software industry is continuing to make virtualization applications easier to implement and use. Toward that end, many tools now exist that easily transform a physical computer into a virtual one with minimal human involvement, e.g., VMWare's Converter. These new tools will further entrench virtual computing in IT infrastructures and warrant close scrutiny by the computer security community.
OLD HABITS DIE HARD
At Black Hat 2008, there were numerous presentations on virtualization security. When I attended the presentations, it was readily apparent that old habits die hard, and that people are naturally resistant to change. For example, when the Internet became widely available in the 1990s, there was little thought to its security and a lot of effort given to increase its functionality. Yet now the computer security industry continues to work hard, many years after the Internet's invention and adoption, to strengthen its security. Security professionals all agreed that "features first, security second" was not the best way to engineer secure technologies and vowed "never again."
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: law.com
By: Keith Jones
The grandiose promises of virtualization may lend support to the results of InformationWeek's Virtualization Report ("The New Sprawl: Managing Virtual Server Environments" Analytics Report, April 2008) that surveyed 323 IT professionals and found that approximately 15 percent of them do not already use a primary virtualization platform. This suggests that approximately 85 percent of the respondents currently employ some type of virtualization which, by any measure, is a high rate of adoption for the technology.
The software industry is continuing to make virtualization applications easier to implement and use. Toward that end, many tools now exist that easily transform a physical computer into a virtual one with minimal human involvement, e.g., VMWare's Converter. These new tools will further entrench virtual computing in IT infrastructures and warrant close scrutiny by the computer security community.
OLD HABITS DIE HARD
At Black Hat 2008, there were numerous presentations on virtualization security. When I attended the presentations, it was readily apparent that old habits die hard, and that people are naturally resistant to change. For example, when the Internet became widely available in the 1990s, there was little thought to its security and a lot of effort given to increase its functionality. Yet now the computer security industry continues to work hard, many years after the Internet's invention and adoption, to strengthen its security. Security professionals all agreed that "features first, security second" was not the best way to engineer secure technologies and vowed "never again."
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: law.com
By: Keith Jones
Friday, November 14, 2008
Avoid Legal Time Bombs
Learn whether your business is vulnerable to getting sued. Find the holes in your business, and stop lawsuits before they start.
If you own a business in the U.S. long enough, there's a strong likelihood that your business will be sued. When that happens, it will cost you a fortune to defend that lawsuit. And that's if you win.
So as a business owner, it's your responsibility to do something about it before it happens to you. For example, if you were afraid of a fire in your home, you'd ask a fire fighter for fire prevention tips. If you were worried about having a heart attack, you'd consult your doctor about preventive medicine. So it's only rational that if you're living in fear of being sued (and losing), you should ask a lawyer how you can improve the odds that you'll not only win, but also avoid a suit entirely. It's called "litigation avoidance" or "preventive lawyering."
An experienced litigator who focuses on litigation avoidance can help you find the "legal time bombs" that may be ticking in your business. A few examples follow:
Employment law is hot, particularly "wage and hour" suits, involving how employees are classified, what they're required to do, and how and when they're required to do it. It's a business nightmare. The traditional mainstays of employment litigation include wrongful termination, discrimination in hiring and/or firing and sexual harassment. This has all become big business for plaintiffs' lawyers, and thus every business in America is a potential target. Have experienced counsel audit your employment practices and advise you if and where there are ticking time bombs.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
--------------------------------------------
Source: MSNBC
By: Patrick Fraioli (Entrepreneur)
If you own a business in the U.S. long enough, there's a strong likelihood that your business will be sued. When that happens, it will cost you a fortune to defend that lawsuit. And that's if you win.
So as a business owner, it's your responsibility to do something about it before it happens to you. For example, if you were afraid of a fire in your home, you'd ask a fire fighter for fire prevention tips. If you were worried about having a heart attack, you'd consult your doctor about preventive medicine. So it's only rational that if you're living in fear of being sued (and losing), you should ask a lawyer how you can improve the odds that you'll not only win, but also avoid a suit entirely. It's called "litigation avoidance" or "preventive lawyering."
An experienced litigator who focuses on litigation avoidance can help you find the "legal time bombs" that may be ticking in your business. A few examples follow:
Employment law is hot, particularly "wage and hour" suits, involving how employees are classified, what they're required to do, and how and when they're required to do it. It's a business nightmare. The traditional mainstays of employment litigation include wrongful termination, discrimination in hiring and/or firing and sexual harassment. This has all become big business for plaintiffs' lawyers, and thus every business in America is a potential target. Have experienced counsel audit your employment practices and advise you if and where there are ticking time bombs.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
--------------------------------------------
Source: MSNBC
By: Patrick Fraioli (Entrepreneur)
Corporate Governance of Public Web Sites
The Securities and Exchange Commission's interpretive guidance released in August on the use of company Web sites for compliance with the disclosure requirements under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the antifraud provisions of the securities laws highlights the need to include Web site review as part of a public company's corporate governance program.
This SEC Web site release is part of the SEC's continued efforts to promote the use of a company Web site as a disclosure vehicle for the dissemination of important information to investors. The release focuses on the SEC's existing position that provisions of the federal securities laws apply to information posted on or hyperlinked to the company's Web site. From a corporate governance perspective, as the corporate Web site and securities regulatory compliance become more intertwined, the Web site not only serves as a communications medium, but also as a compliance tool that has to be appropriately managed.
This article describes methods of effectively complying with the new SEC guidance related to company Web sites.
Generally, the system of reviewing and monitoring information posted on a company Web site should be part of the disclosure controls included in the enterprise-wide risk management system established by the company. In order to effectively manage the company's risks at the enterprise level, both the board of directors or a committee of the board and management should be involved in such a process. A specific member of the company's securities compliance team, for example, an in-house counsel or an internal auditor, should be in charge of reviewing and updating the content of the company Web site. This person should report to a committee of the board of directors, to which the responsibility of monitoring the company's securities compliance in general, including company Web site disclosures, was delegated by the board. In addition, if the company has established a disclosure committee, such committee should specifically discuss not only the company's SEC filings but also the company's Web site content as it is related to the company's compliance with the federal securities laws.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: law.com
By: Jane K. Storero and Yelena Barychev
This SEC Web site release is part of the SEC's continued efforts to promote the use of a company Web site as a disclosure vehicle for the dissemination of important information to investors. The release focuses on the SEC's existing position that provisions of the federal securities laws apply to information posted on or hyperlinked to the company's Web site. From a corporate governance perspective, as the corporate Web site and securities regulatory compliance become more intertwined, the Web site not only serves as a communications medium, but also as a compliance tool that has to be appropriately managed.
This article describes methods of effectively complying with the new SEC guidance related to company Web sites.
Generally, the system of reviewing and monitoring information posted on a company Web site should be part of the disclosure controls included in the enterprise-wide risk management system established by the company. In order to effectively manage the company's risks at the enterprise level, both the board of directors or a committee of the board and management should be involved in such a process. A specific member of the company's securities compliance team, for example, an in-house counsel or an internal auditor, should be in charge of reviewing and updating the content of the company Web site. This person should report to a committee of the board of directors, to which the responsibility of monitoring the company's securities compliance in general, including company Web site disclosures, was delegated by the board. In addition, if the company has established a disclosure committee, such committee should specifically discuss not only the company's SEC filings but also the company's Web site content as it is related to the company's compliance with the federal securities laws.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: law.com
By: Jane K. Storero and Yelena Barychev
Storage encryption
Encrypting storage protects businesses from data losses on account of missing media.
The benefit of doing encryption at the storage layer is that all data access funnels down to storage and encrypting the same covers a lot of exposure all at once. Businesses have plenty of options to choose from—software-based encryption, switch-based encryption, drive- or library-based encryption, and dedicated appliances.
Organizations especially banks, telcos and to a lesser extent manufacturing companies in India, have started encrypting their tapes as a safe measure for all data that is in ‘in-transit’ to a storage facility.
In the last two years, there have been many instances of data loss in transit. In May 2007, Time Warner Inc. started encrypting all data saved to backup tapes after 40 tapes with personal information on about 600,000 current and former employees were lost in transit to a storage facility. Apparently, a shipping container that held the tapes was lost on March 22, 2007 during a routine shipment to an off-site facility by records management and storage firm Iron Mountain Inc.
On May 30 2008, the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. confirmed that a third-party vendor lost a box of unencrypted data storage tapes holding personal information of more than 4.5 million individuals during transport to an off-site facility.
No incidents of tapes being lost in transit have been reported in India, as our laws do not mandate public disclosure when a security breach potentially exposes unencrypted private data. However, some banks and ITES companies admitted that there have been some lapses in handling the tapes that leave their data centers, which have put them in a tight spot.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: expresscomputeronline.com
The benefit of doing encryption at the storage layer is that all data access funnels down to storage and encrypting the same covers a lot of exposure all at once. Businesses have plenty of options to choose from—software-based encryption, switch-based encryption, drive- or library-based encryption, and dedicated appliances.
Organizations especially banks, telcos and to a lesser extent manufacturing companies in India, have started encrypting their tapes as a safe measure for all data that is in ‘in-transit’ to a storage facility.
In the last two years, there have been many instances of data loss in transit. In May 2007, Time Warner Inc. started encrypting all data saved to backup tapes after 40 tapes with personal information on about 600,000 current and former employees were lost in transit to a storage facility. Apparently, a shipping container that held the tapes was lost on March 22, 2007 during a routine shipment to an off-site facility by records management and storage firm Iron Mountain Inc.
On May 30 2008, the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. confirmed that a third-party vendor lost a box of unencrypted data storage tapes holding personal information of more than 4.5 million individuals during transport to an off-site facility.
No incidents of tapes being lost in transit have been reported in India, as our laws do not mandate public disclosure when a security breach potentially exposes unencrypted private data. However, some banks and ITES companies admitted that there have been some lapses in handling the tapes that leave their data centers, which have put them in a tight spot.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: expresscomputeronline.com
Passware Software Exposes Private Data Indexed by Windows Search
Passware, Inc., the expert in cryptanalysis, introduces a new evidence discovery solution for Windows Vista, XP, and Server 2003. Passware Search Index Examiner makes all the data indexed by Windows Search instantly accessible to computer forensics and IT professionals. Search Index Examiner lists all the documents, emails, and spreadsheets, as well as providing creation and modification dates, author, recipients, summary content, and other information for each item. The only data it needs from the target computer is a Windows Search database.
A quick scan of a Windows Search Database can find documents relevant to a case, and even preview of files and items which have been deleted, deliberately or not.
It takes under 10 minutes to perform a full scan - extracting over 150,000 items. As an average personal computer stores far fewer items, a typical extraction is almost instant. The wizard interface makes the process easy as ABC.
“The Windows platform is not as secure as it might seem,” states Passware President Dmitry Sumin. “A single file from a computer is enough to expose all the documents and emails for all users on that particular PC. And it takes just a few minutes to get the job done. This is long-awaited news for computer forensics and IT professionals, but may raise privacy concerns.”
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: enewschannels.com
A quick scan of a Windows Search Database can find documents relevant to a case, and even preview of files and items which have been deleted, deliberately or not.
It takes under 10 minutes to perform a full scan - extracting over 150,000 items. As an average personal computer stores far fewer items, a typical extraction is almost instant. The wizard interface makes the process easy as ABC.
“The Windows platform is not as secure as it might seem,” states Passware President Dmitry Sumin. “A single file from a computer is enough to expose all the documents and emails for all users on that particular PC. And it takes just a few minutes to get the job done. This is long-awaited news for computer forensics and IT professionals, but may raise privacy concerns.”
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: enewschannels.com
Thursday, November 13, 2008
GPS Data Finding a Place in the Courtroom
Whether used as a key piece of evidence in a high profile murder case like Scott Peterson's in California, or simply used to contest a run-of-the-mill speeding ticket, global positioning devices are slowly making their presence felt in the courtroom.
Although there have been no reported cases thus far in Connecticut where GPS evidence has played a key role at trial or its admissibility has been challenged, experts say it is only a matter of time.
"I personally have not had a case yet where it's been utilized," said Judge Patrick J. Clifford, Connecticut's chief administrative judge for the criminal division. "As far as I know Connecticut hasn't dealt with it yet but it's an interesting issue that's certainly going to come to fruition sometime in the near future here."
With the growing popularity of GPS devices -- found in cars, cell phones and other hand-held devices such as BlackBerrys -- law enforcement officers have another powerful tool to track suspects. After all, reliable GPS data could put a suspect at a crime scene between, say 9:42 and 10:17 p.m. and reveal where he or she came from and went next.
"If that information is out there, police and prosecutors would want to try to obtain it," Clifford said.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Christian Nolan
Although there have been no reported cases thus far in Connecticut where GPS evidence has played a key role at trial or its admissibility has been challenged, experts say it is only a matter of time.
"I personally have not had a case yet where it's been utilized," said Judge Patrick J. Clifford, Connecticut's chief administrative judge for the criminal division. "As far as I know Connecticut hasn't dealt with it yet but it's an interesting issue that's certainly going to come to fruition sometime in the near future here."
With the growing popularity of GPS devices -- found in cars, cell phones and other hand-held devices such as BlackBerrys -- law enforcement officers have another powerful tool to track suspects. After all, reliable GPS data could put a suspect at a crime scene between, say 9:42 and 10:17 p.m. and reveal where he or she came from and went next.
"If that information is out there, police and prosecutors would want to try to obtain it," Clifford said.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Christian Nolan
Are Social Networking Sites Discoverable?
Peggy casually sits at her workstation writing in her "MyFazer" (a fictional name of a social networking site). She is reporting on the backyard party she attended over the weekend. She reminisces about the fun she had bouncing on a trampoline with the entire football team before it collapsed. She ponders: Could her resulting injuries be her "golden ticket" to escape from a mountain of debt? Could she now force her employer, INC, to give her a prime office on the first floor and a front-line parking space?
Shortly thereafter, Peggy files suit against the manufacturer of the trampoline. She also advises INC that she sustained a serious injury that dramatically inhibited her mobility and rendered her in need of a workplace "accommodation."
During discovery, counsel for the trampoline manufacturer demands production of any and all communications about or relating to the incident, including any responsive entries on Peggy's MyFazer page. Peggy's counsel refuses to supply the demanded information and seeks a protective order asserting that her journal entries were posted as a method of catharsis to help her cope with her injuries and were not intended as a communication. Her counsel argues that their production would violate Peggy's right to privacy.
Peggy's battle to keep her MyFazer page private did not end there. INC quickly became suspicious of her "injury" and began an internal investigation into her workstation Internet use, including reviewing her password-protected MyFazer page. Peggy did not realize that because she was using her INC computer to access her MyFazer page, INC was able to access the page.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Ronald J. Levine and Susan L. Swatski-Lebson
Shortly thereafter, Peggy files suit against the manufacturer of the trampoline. She also advises INC that she sustained a serious injury that dramatically inhibited her mobility and rendered her in need of a workplace "accommodation."
During discovery, counsel for the trampoline manufacturer demands production of any and all communications about or relating to the incident, including any responsive entries on Peggy's MyFazer page. Peggy's counsel refuses to supply the demanded information and seeks a protective order asserting that her journal entries were posted as a method of catharsis to help her cope with her injuries and were not intended as a communication. Her counsel argues that their production would violate Peggy's right to privacy.
Peggy's battle to keep her MyFazer page private did not end there. INC quickly became suspicious of her "injury" and began an internal investigation into her workstation Internet use, including reviewing her password-protected MyFazer page. Peggy did not realize that because she was using her INC computer to access her MyFazer page, INC was able to access the page.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Ronald J. Levine and Susan L. Swatski-Lebson
Barracuda Networks’ Report Finds Importance of Email Archiving Goes Beyond Compliance
Barracuda Networks’ Report Finds Importance of Email Archiving Goes Beyond Compliance
Barracuda Networks Inc., the worldwide leader in email and Web security appliances, released a new study that examines the adoption of message archiving solutions within a cross-section of organizations in North America. Collected from the responses of 200 IT professionals in North America, the survey found that an overwhelming majority, nearly 82 percent, view email archiving as “important” or “very important” for their organization. Further, more than two-thirds of respondents cited reasons other than compliance as their main consideration for implementing an email archiving solution.
Respondents cited reasons such as user access to archived email (21 percent), email retention is considered a best practice (15 percent) and providing access to old email when storage quotas are in effect (15 percent), as the most important reasons for archiving email.
“Email archiving is not just for organizations in heavily-regulated industries such as the financial, healthcare or government sectors,” said Stephen Pao, vice president of product management for Barracuda Networks. “Organizations from a range of vertical markets recognize that email archiving leads to a more efficient network from an IT standpoint as well as from the end user’s perspective.”
Email retention and e-discovery requirements
Nearly half (48 percent) of respondents indicated that they have been involved in a litigation request that required email as part of the discovery process, however, only 11 percent of respondents involved in a litigation request involving email had an archiving solution in place to assist with the discovery process.
More than one-third (33 percent) of respondents indicated that it took up to one month to produce email as part of an e-discovery request without the aid of an email archiving solution.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: businesswire.com
Barracuda Networks Inc., the worldwide leader in email and Web security appliances, released a new study that examines the adoption of message archiving solutions within a cross-section of organizations in North America. Collected from the responses of 200 IT professionals in North America, the survey found that an overwhelming majority, nearly 82 percent, view email archiving as “important” or “very important” for their organization. Further, more than two-thirds of respondents cited reasons other than compliance as their main consideration for implementing an email archiving solution.
Respondents cited reasons such as user access to archived email (21 percent), email retention is considered a best practice (15 percent) and providing access to old email when storage quotas are in effect (15 percent), as the most important reasons for archiving email.
“Email archiving is not just for organizations in heavily-regulated industries such as the financial, healthcare or government sectors,” said Stephen Pao, vice president of product management for Barracuda Networks. “Organizations from a range of vertical markets recognize that email archiving leads to a more efficient network from an IT standpoint as well as from the end user’s perspective.”
Email retention and e-discovery requirements
Nearly half (48 percent) of respondents indicated that they have been involved in a litigation request that required email as part of the discovery process, however, only 11 percent of respondents involved in a litigation request involving email had an archiving solution in place to assist with the discovery process.
More than one-third (33 percent) of respondents indicated that it took up to one month to produce email as part of an e-discovery request without the aid of an email archiving solution.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: businesswire.com
New regulations will soon swell IT workloads
The financial meltdown, fueled by a decade of exotic financing mechanisms that some say were designed to hide risk and pass it on to unwary buyers, will have a major impact on IT budgets, personnel, and reporting responsibilities. New regulations will put IT in the hot seat, much as the post-Enron Sarbanes-Oxley and other such rules did in the early 2000s as governments responded to that period's financial shenanigans.
"The country is clamoring for regulation. It's a popular mandate," says Josh Greenbaum, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting. "It is not just about the collapse of the financial credit market. It is also the end of the road on deregulation across all industries." And it's IT that acts as the regulators' "beat cop," enforcing the rules through the technology systems they deploy and manage, he adds.
So, despite being battered by recession-linked cutbacks, IT will have to find a way to take on the heavy burden of new regulations expected to emerge from U.S. and other governments in 2009, analysts and industry executives agree.
Coming: A greater IT burden than Sarbanes-Oxley and the Patriot Act"The last two tsunamis to hit IT, the Patriot Act and Sarbanes-Oxley, required companies to know their customers and to know themselves and their [own] finances," says Larry Rafsky, CEO of Acquire Media, which distributes companies' financial news. "Now, the upcoming regulations will say, 'Know your customers' finances.'"
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: tmcnet.com
"The country is clamoring for regulation. It's a popular mandate," says Josh Greenbaum, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting. "It is not just about the collapse of the financial credit market. It is also the end of the road on deregulation across all industries." And it's IT that acts as the regulators' "beat cop," enforcing the rules through the technology systems they deploy and manage, he adds.
So, despite being battered by recession-linked cutbacks, IT will have to find a way to take on the heavy burden of new regulations expected to emerge from U.S. and other governments in 2009, analysts and industry executives agree.
Coming: A greater IT burden than Sarbanes-Oxley and the Patriot Act"The last two tsunamis to hit IT, the Patriot Act and Sarbanes-Oxley, required companies to know their customers and to know themselves and their [own] finances," says Larry Rafsky, CEO of Acquire Media, which distributes companies' financial news. "Now, the upcoming regulations will say, 'Know your customers' finances.'"
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: tmcnet.com
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
eDiscovery and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Market Poised to Grow to Over $2 Billion by 2012
A New Study by The Radicati Group, Inc. Shows an Increasing Demand for eDiscovery and DLP Solutions Coming From Organizations in Non-Regulated Industries
The latest study by The Radicati Group, Inc."eDiscovery and Data Loss Prevention Market 2008 - 2012" provides marketsize, four-year forecasts, and discusses legislative and technology issuesof the eDiscovery and DLP market. The study also provides an analysis ofthe leading market players.
eDiscovery and DLP are supervision solutions that help companies monitorand manage electronic data travelling over their corporate channels. Theyensure that all users adhere to internal communication rules, andgovernment policies. Most regulated companies have already deployed asupervision solution. The majority of growth in terms of new customers isnow coming from the non-regulated segment. Internal lawsuits and betterawareness of blanket regulations (such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act), as wellas the recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) arebecoming strong drivers for the deployment of supervision solutions.
We estimate that the total market for eDiscovery and DLP solutions willgrow to over $2 billion by 2012.
To order a copy of the study, or for additional information about ourmarket research programs, please visit our web site athttp://www.radicati.com, or call Lauren Reardon at (650) 322-8059.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: ibtimes.com
The latest study by The Radicati Group, Inc."eDiscovery and Data Loss Prevention Market 2008 - 2012" provides marketsize, four-year forecasts, and discusses legislative and technology issuesof the eDiscovery and DLP market. The study also provides an analysis ofthe leading market players.
eDiscovery and DLP are supervision solutions that help companies monitorand manage electronic data travelling over their corporate channels. Theyensure that all users adhere to internal communication rules, andgovernment policies. Most regulated companies have already deployed asupervision solution. The majority of growth in terms of new customers isnow coming from the non-regulated segment. Internal lawsuits and betterawareness of blanket regulations (such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act), as wellas the recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) arebecoming strong drivers for the deployment of supervision solutions.
We estimate that the total market for eDiscovery and DLP solutions willgrow to over $2 billion by 2012.
To order a copy of the study, or for additional information about ourmarket research programs, please visit our web site athttp://www.radicati.com, or call Lauren Reardon at (650) 322-8059.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: ibtimes.com
Correlating Many Data Sources Is Often The Key
Being able to successfully perform incident response and digital forensics requires having the right tools and, more importantly, the right sources of information. I was assisting a client with a case recently that made this simple fact more apparent the more I dug into the monstrous amount of information they provided me.
This particular case required the review of logs from numerous systems, as well as the standard "dead" forensics in which the hard drive from the suspect's computer or compromised system is forensically copied while the system is off and which serves as the primary source of information.
During analysis of a dead hard drive, other information sources are typically used to lend credence to what is seen on the hard drive. Unfortunately, the copy of the hard drive is sometimes incomplete due to damage caused by the suspect or intruder, or by physical damage caused by hardware failure or mishandling by the first responders. This is where the additional sources of data can prove to be invaluable to help fill in the picture so investigators can truly understand what took place.
So what sources of data can be important to cracking a case? The obvious answer is that it depends on the case, but several sources can apply to just about any case. Interviewing key personnel, both users and sysadmins, is very important. Users can tell you what weird things they saw when their systems were acting up, and sysadmins can tell you whether they patched diligently and what security protections were in place. They can also point you to important system and network documentation (if they exists).
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Source: darkreading.com
By: John Sawyer
This particular case required the review of logs from numerous systems, as well as the standard "dead" forensics in which the hard drive from the suspect's computer or compromised system is forensically copied while the system is off and which serves as the primary source of information.
During analysis of a dead hard drive, other information sources are typically used to lend credence to what is seen on the hard drive. Unfortunately, the copy of the hard drive is sometimes incomplete due to damage caused by the suspect or intruder, or by physical damage caused by hardware failure or mishandling by the first responders. This is where the additional sources of data can prove to be invaluable to help fill in the picture so investigators can truly understand what took place.
So what sources of data can be important to cracking a case? The obvious answer is that it depends on the case, but several sources can apply to just about any case. Interviewing key personnel, both users and sysadmins, is very important. Users can tell you what weird things they saw when their systems were acting up, and sysadmins can tell you whether they patched diligently and what security protections were in place. They can also point you to important system and network documentation (if they exists).
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: darkreading.com
By: John Sawyer
Lawyers Deny Ordering E-Mails Deleted
Two attorneys who advised the governor's office on document retention deny telling computer technicians to record over backup tapes that store state e-mail records.
That allegation was raised by the state's deputy computer chief,who has said he was told to reuse the e-mail backup tapes after a Sunshine Law request submitted by The Associated Press.
Former governor's office general counsel Henry Hershel and former Office of Administration Deputy Director Rich AuBuchon each said there was a misunderstanding and that they wanted the records preserved.
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Source: kspr.com
That allegation was raised by the state's deputy computer chief,who has said he was told to reuse the e-mail backup tapes after a Sunshine Law request submitted by The Associated Press.
Former governor's office general counsel Henry Hershel and former Office of Administration Deputy Director Rich AuBuchon each said there was a misunderstanding and that they wanted the records preserved.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: kspr.com
How Much Work Are Corporate Law Departments Paying For?
What impact does a slow economy have on the amount of work corporate law departments send to outside firms?
The answer depends on whom you ask.
Two recent surveys offer different takes on how the lethargic economy is affecting the distribution of legal work. One survey, released in October found that legal departments have cut spending on outside counsel and have become more selective about the work they send out. Yet another survey, published this month, has found that most corporations have maintained or increased their reliance on outside firms during the past year.
"Right now, I don't think anybody knows exactly what's going on," said Daniel DiLucchio Jr., a consultant with Altman Weil who specializes in corporate law departments. "My sense is that most general counsel are trying to contain costs and internalize the work as much as possible, and find the right firms to do the work they send out."
DiLucchio noted that the economy has gone through drastic changes in a short period of time, and that in-house counsel are making adjustments accordingly, which could account for the varying survey results.
According to a recent survey sponsored by legal staffing service Robert Half Legal, corporations have sent more business to outside law firms in the past 12 months. That survey was based on responses from attorneys at 150 large U.S. and Canadian companies.
More than a third of those surveyed -- 36 percent -- reported that their companies had increased the amount of legal work sent to outside law firms in the past year. Another 42 percent said that there had been no change in the amount of work for outside counsel, while 19 percent said that the amount of work going to outside legal counsel had decreased.
The Robert Half Legal survey does reflect some negative impact from the economy, however. The percentage of in-house attorneys who reported an increase in work for outside firms dropped by 9 percent from 2007, when 45 percent said that their companies increased the amount of legal work they sent out.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Law.com
By: Karen Sloan
The answer depends on whom you ask.
Two recent surveys offer different takes on how the lethargic economy is affecting the distribution of legal work. One survey, released in October found that legal departments have cut spending on outside counsel and have become more selective about the work they send out. Yet another survey, published this month, has found that most corporations have maintained or increased their reliance on outside firms during the past year.
"Right now, I don't think anybody knows exactly what's going on," said Daniel DiLucchio Jr., a consultant with Altman Weil who specializes in corporate law departments. "My sense is that most general counsel are trying to contain costs and internalize the work as much as possible, and find the right firms to do the work they send out."
DiLucchio noted that the economy has gone through drastic changes in a short period of time, and that in-house counsel are making adjustments accordingly, which could account for the varying survey results.
According to a recent survey sponsored by legal staffing service Robert Half Legal, corporations have sent more business to outside law firms in the past 12 months. That survey was based on responses from attorneys at 150 large U.S. and Canadian companies.
More than a third of those surveyed -- 36 percent -- reported that their companies had increased the amount of legal work sent to outside law firms in the past year. Another 42 percent said that there had been no change in the amount of work for outside counsel, while 19 percent said that the amount of work going to outside legal counsel had decreased.
The Robert Half Legal survey does reflect some negative impact from the economy, however. The percentage of in-house attorneys who reported an increase in work for outside firms dropped by 9 percent from 2007, when 45 percent said that their companies increased the amount of legal work they sent out.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------
Source: Law.com
By: Karen Sloan
Informed, Smart E-Discovery Wins the Day
Two thoughtful jurists issued opinions in discovery matters that took opposite tacks in different situations to achieve the same goal.
In Mancia v. Mayflower Textile Service Company, No. 1:2008cv00273 (D.Md. Oct. 15, 2008), the well-respected Judge Paul W. Grimm held that the party requesting discovery must make tailored requests while the producing party must supply specific responses as to why a request may be overboard, inaccessible or otherwise burdensome.
In Containment Technologies Group v. American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists, No. 1:2007cv00997 (S.D. Ind. Oct. 10, 2008), Judge Tim A. Baker held that a producing party may broadly include e-discovery within a protective order and does not have to review each part of each file before so doing. The specificity required in Mancia and its absence in Containment Technologies both have the same goal, which was one of the goals of the 2006 Amendments to the Federal Rules: to move along the discovery process. They also both shed light on the practices emerging from the amendments as well as illustrate one tenet of those practices, namely, that in e-discovery practice, informed, smart answers win.
GENERAL APPROACH
In Mancia, plaintiffs filed a collective action for declaratory and monetary relief, claiming defendants failed to pay them overtime and illegally deducted wages. The court noted "the few number of named Plaintiffs and the relatively modest amounts of wages claimed for each," although it also noted that it could not gauge the amount of damages involved until it passed on plaintiffs' motion to certify a collective action.
Plaintiffs filed numerous interrogatories and document production requests. Defendants responded with boilerplate objections which plaintiffs characterized as "inadequate." Plaintiffs responded by making numerous motions, to which defendants responded. As the court noted, "The Motions, Responses and Replies filed were extensive" -- 14 document requests and two supplemental interrogatory responses to one defendant, 10 document requests and two supplemental interrogatory responses to the second, two document requests to the third, but seeking the "same type of information" from all three, and 25 document requests and one supplemental interrogatory response for the fourth defendant, Argo. The court noted that even when Argo was able to resolve 20 disputes with plaintiffs, the plaintiffs responded by requesting that Argo supplement its interrogatory responses.
The court scheduled a hearing because it appeared that both sides had violated the federal rules -- plaintiffs for making overbroad and duplicative requests and motions disproportionate to the value of the case, defendants by responding without specificity. The court expressed concern with "the breadth" of plaintiffs' discovery requests "and the possibility that they were excessively broad and costly, given what [was] at stake."
To Continue Reading: Click Here
---------------------------------------------
Source: Law.com
By: Leonard Deutchman
In Mancia v. Mayflower Textile Service Company, No. 1:2008cv00273 (D.Md. Oct. 15, 2008), the well-respected Judge Paul W. Grimm held that the party requesting discovery must make tailored requests while the producing party must supply specific responses as to why a request may be overboard, inaccessible or otherwise burdensome.
In Containment Technologies Group v. American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists, No. 1:2007cv00997 (S.D. Ind. Oct. 10, 2008), Judge Tim A. Baker held that a producing party may broadly include e-discovery within a protective order and does not have to review each part of each file before so doing. The specificity required in Mancia and its absence in Containment Technologies both have the same goal, which was one of the goals of the 2006 Amendments to the Federal Rules: to move along the discovery process. They also both shed light on the practices emerging from the amendments as well as illustrate one tenet of those practices, namely, that in e-discovery practice, informed, smart answers win.
GENERAL APPROACH
In Mancia, plaintiffs filed a collective action for declaratory and monetary relief, claiming defendants failed to pay them overtime and illegally deducted wages. The court noted "the few number of named Plaintiffs and the relatively modest amounts of wages claimed for each," although it also noted that it could not gauge the amount of damages involved until it passed on plaintiffs' motion to certify a collective action.
Plaintiffs filed numerous interrogatories and document production requests. Defendants responded with boilerplate objections which plaintiffs characterized as "inadequate." Plaintiffs responded by making numerous motions, to which defendants responded. As the court noted, "The Motions, Responses and Replies filed were extensive" -- 14 document requests and two supplemental interrogatory responses to one defendant, 10 document requests and two supplemental interrogatory responses to the second, two document requests to the third, but seeking the "same type of information" from all three, and 25 document requests and one supplemental interrogatory response for the fourth defendant, Argo. The court noted that even when Argo was able to resolve 20 disputes with plaintiffs, the plaintiffs responded by requesting that Argo supplement its interrogatory responses.
The court scheduled a hearing because it appeared that both sides had violated the federal rules -- plaintiffs for making overbroad and duplicative requests and motions disproportionate to the value of the case, defendants by responding without specificity. The court expressed concern with "the breadth" of plaintiffs' discovery requests "and the possibility that they were excessively broad and costly, given what [was] at stake."
To Continue Reading: Click Here
---------------------------------------------
Source: Law.com
By: Leonard Deutchman
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
eDiscovery – Proper Preparation Requires Data Retention Policies
Storage managers need to create a well-organized data infrastructure, not only for e-discovery but also for resource management, budgetary reasons, and compliance
There is a cautionary tale for storage managers in the court case known as Zubulake vs. UBS Warburg.
Most people know about the multi-billion dollar judgment against Morgan Stanley for poor eDiscovery practices. Another classic example of the risks of poor discovery is the infamous Zubulake case, which should have been a routine employee discrimination case. But as eDiscovery continued, the court found that the defendant failed to produce evidence from backup tapes in a timely manner and, worse, overwrote entire backup tapes when the original data should have been placed under litigation hold. The court slapped sanctions and costs on the defendant for their missteps. Even worse for the defendant, the court instructed the jury to assume that all emails deleted after the ex-employee's filing date would have prejudiced the defendant's case. The result was a $29.3 million judgment against hapless USB.
Compliant and consistent data retention policies would have saved USB millions of dollars in sanctions, attorney costs and judgments. And USB is not alone. Most businesses with $100 million or more in annual revenue are involved in some type of active litigation, and large corporations handle hundreds of active cases. This level of active litigation makes the e-discovery process ongoing and expensive in terms of time and resources. One common estimate is that manual e-discovery procedures average $2,000 per Gbyte of reviewed data. Keeping in mind that a single e-discovery procedure can easily involve multiple terabytes of data, $2,000 per Gbyte is an expensive proposition.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: byteandswitch.com
By: Christine Taylor
There is a cautionary tale for storage managers in the court case known as Zubulake vs. UBS Warburg.
Most people know about the multi-billion dollar judgment against Morgan Stanley for poor eDiscovery practices. Another classic example of the risks of poor discovery is the infamous Zubulake case, which should have been a routine employee discrimination case. But as eDiscovery continued, the court found that the defendant failed to produce evidence from backup tapes in a timely manner and, worse, overwrote entire backup tapes when the original data should have been placed under litigation hold. The court slapped sanctions and costs on the defendant for their missteps. Even worse for the defendant, the court instructed the jury to assume that all emails deleted after the ex-employee's filing date would have prejudiced the defendant's case. The result was a $29.3 million judgment against hapless USB.
Compliant and consistent data retention policies would have saved USB millions of dollars in sanctions, attorney costs and judgments. And USB is not alone. Most businesses with $100 million or more in annual revenue are involved in some type of active litigation, and large corporations handle hundreds of active cases. This level of active litigation makes the e-discovery process ongoing and expensive in terms of time and resources. One common estimate is that manual e-discovery procedures average $2,000 per Gbyte of reviewed data. Keeping in mind that a single e-discovery procedure can easily involve multiple terabytes of data, $2,000 per Gbyte is an expensive proposition.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-------------------------------------------------
Source: byteandswitch.com
By: Christine Taylor
How Business Intelligence is used worldwide?
Thomas Friedman, author of the book The World is Flat describes the banishment of trade barriers and the digital revolution as forces that are leveling the playing field, enabling billions of people across the planet, whether from a rich or poor nation, to do business with each other instantaneously. The competitiveness raised by this phenomenon, coined Globalization 3.0, has transformed the way companies react to their customers' demands.
To remain ahead of the game, organizations are seeking critical intelligence to quickly identify inefficiencies, opportunities and threats and ultimately make better decisions. With this in mind, it's no surprise that Business Intelligence (BI) was ranked by CIOs worldwide as the top technology priority, according to Gartner's Executive Programs survey 2008.
This article examines trends in each region that are driving major corporations, governments and innovative startups across the world to adopt BI in order to keep pace with the most complex global developments.
* Corporate Governance Drives BI in America The U.S. continues to reign as the most competitive IT market in the World, according to a recent EIU study, and, until recently, 17 percent of tech spending has come from the financial services industry. In light of the recent institutional collapses in the U.S., financial services organizations that survive must become more customer-oriented, streamline operations and be prepared to swiftly respond to change and challenges.
Consistency, transparency and timeliness of information will become even more critical for organizations trying to manage compliance. Those that emerge stronger and more focused will take advantage of the contributionsinformation technology is making to the business.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: ciol.com
By: Sanjay Deshmukh
To remain ahead of the game, organizations are seeking critical intelligence to quickly identify inefficiencies, opportunities and threats and ultimately make better decisions. With this in mind, it's no surprise that Business Intelligence (BI) was ranked by CIOs worldwide as the top technology priority, according to Gartner's Executive Programs survey 2008.
This article examines trends in each region that are driving major corporations, governments and innovative startups across the world to adopt BI in order to keep pace with the most complex global developments.
* Corporate Governance Drives BI in America The U.S. continues to reign as the most competitive IT market in the World, according to a recent EIU study, and, until recently, 17 percent of tech spending has come from the financial services industry. In light of the recent institutional collapses in the U.S., financial services organizations that survive must become more customer-oriented, streamline operations and be prepared to swiftly respond to change and challenges.
Consistency, transparency and timeliness of information will become even more critical for organizations trying to manage compliance. Those that emerge stronger and more focused will take advantage of the contributionsinformation technology is making to the business.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: ciol.com
By: Sanjay Deshmukh
Judge rules against White House in e-mail case
A federal judge on Monday ruled against the Bush administration in a court battle over the White House's problem-plagued e-mail system. With two-and-a-half months remaining before the Bush administration leaves office, U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy ruled that two private groups may pursue their case as they press the government to recover millions of possibly missing electronic messages.
Kennedy rejected the government's request to throw out the lawsuits filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive.
The government had argued that the courts did not have the authority to order the White House to retrieve any missing e-mails.
Kennedy, an appointee of President Clinton, said the two private groups seek precisely the relief outlined in the Federal Records Act and upheld in a previous case by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
CREW and the National Security Archive want a court order directing the archivist of the United States to initiate action through the attorney general to restore deleted e-mails.
Meredith Fuchs, the National Security Archive's general counsel, said that because of the ruling, a court order directing the White House to preserve 65,000 computer backup tapes remains in place.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: ap.google.com
By: Pete Yost
Kennedy rejected the government's request to throw out the lawsuits filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive.
The government had argued that the courts did not have the authority to order the White House to retrieve any missing e-mails.
Kennedy, an appointee of President Clinton, said the two private groups seek precisely the relief outlined in the Federal Records Act and upheld in a previous case by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
CREW and the National Security Archive want a court order directing the archivist of the United States to initiate action through the attorney general to restore deleted e-mails.
Meredith Fuchs, the National Security Archive's general counsel, said that because of the ruling, a court order directing the White House to preserve 65,000 computer backup tapes remains in place.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: ap.google.com
By: Pete Yost
Monday, November 10, 2008
Digital Technology Footprints Trip Up Suspects
The man denied any wrongdoing, but Lakeland police had something on him - his cell phone.
Since the department founded its intelligence unit in 2001, cell phones, computers, MP3 players, and many other forms of digital technology have taken on new roles as gatherers of digital evidence and become increasingly useful in police work nationwide.
In the case of Sergio Crandall, the evidence found inside his phone would help Lakeland police close their investigation.
The incident began with a traffic stop, police said.
Shortly after midnight May 22, Lakeland police Officer Scott Peterman pulled over Crandall, 36, in his white Dodge truck.
According to reports, as Peterman stepped out of his patrol car, the truck's taillights began to flicker, and as he yelled for Crandall to put the truck in park, it began hurtling back toward him. Peterman drew his Heckler & Koch .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun and fired eight rounds, piercing the driver's side of the truck six times.
To Continue Reading: Click Here-------------------------------------------------
Source: theledger.com
By: Shoshana Walter
'FOIA Abuse' Decried After Mass Release of E-Mails
Is there such a thing as "FOIA abuse"? A legal controversy over a Freedom of Information Act request in Michigan is fueling that question.
A school district honored two FOIA requests by local citizens that recently triggered the release of 12,000 e-mail addresses belonging to parents in the Bloomfield Hills School District, an area near Detroit.
The e-mail addresses wound up in the hands of two school board candidates who used them for campaign purposes, outraging the parents who believed that FOIA was misused and their privacy was invaded.
"I think ... it was an expansive reading of FOIA and probably poor judgment on the part of the school district to release the e-mail addresses of parents," said First Amendment attorney Herschel Fink, a partner at Detroit's Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn.
Brad Banasik, legal counsel to the Michigan Association of School Boards, defended the school district, saying it had no choice but to honor the FOIA requests or face a potential lawsuit. He said the FOIA requests were filed by two women, one who wanted the list to help promote a school bond proposal. The district obliged. The other woman didn't list a reason, but school officials said they had to honor her request because they had honored the other woman's request.
"If you release information to this group, you have to release it to the other one," Banasik said "I can't really blame the school district for making the decision that they made."
Attorneys elsewhere say the Michigan case is an example of a phenomenon whereby a growing number of everyday folks -- average citizens -- are hitting their local governments with FOIA requests, seeking everything from financial records to e-mail records.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Tresa Baldas
A school district honored two FOIA requests by local citizens that recently triggered the release of 12,000 e-mail addresses belonging to parents in the Bloomfield Hills School District, an area near Detroit.
The e-mail addresses wound up in the hands of two school board candidates who used them for campaign purposes, outraging the parents who believed that FOIA was misused and their privacy was invaded.
"I think ... it was an expansive reading of FOIA and probably poor judgment on the part of the school district to release the e-mail addresses of parents," said First Amendment attorney Herschel Fink, a partner at Detroit's Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn.
Brad Banasik, legal counsel to the Michigan Association of School Boards, defended the school district, saying it had no choice but to honor the FOIA requests or face a potential lawsuit. He said the FOIA requests were filed by two women, one who wanted the list to help promote a school bond proposal. The district obliged. The other woman didn't list a reason, but school officials said they had to honor her request because they had honored the other woman's request.
"If you release information to this group, you have to release it to the other one," Banasik said "I can't really blame the school district for making the decision that they made."
Attorneys elsewhere say the Michigan case is an example of a phenomenon whereby a growing number of everyday folks -- average citizens -- are hitting their local governments with FOIA requests, seeking everything from financial records to e-mail records.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Tresa Baldas
Nation's first encryption law
For the first time in the United States, a law specifies that encryption be used for the transmission of any electronic data. Nevada's NRS 597.970, which went into effect on Oct. 1, states: “A business in this State shall not transfer any personal information of a customer through an electronic transmission other than a facsimile to a person outside of the secure system of the business unless the business uses encryption to ensure the security of electronic transmission.”
While 39 states have already passed data protection laws, most requiring disclosure of breaches, and several other states with data laws introduced, Nevada's statute is thought to be the first law requiring encryption of transmitted data.
But a consensus is hard to reach on what effect this law might have.
“This isn't that different from HIPPA or GLBA restrictions on the transmission of personal health information or financial info or state customer information disclosure laws,” says Peter Firstbrook, a research director at Gartner. “So if companies are complying with those regulations, they should have the ability to adjust their policy to comply with this law. I suspect other states will follow and it would be nice if they harmonized the laws so that it was easier for companies to certify compliance. This will likely be harder for small business to comply with.”
Phil Neray, vice president of marketing at Guardium, echoes Firstbrook, saying that any business governed by PCI is already encrypting data in transit in order to be compliant. While he says any law that encourages better security is a good thing, he argues that hackers are looking for bigger targets than email attachments.“The focus should be on areas that have potential for massive data breaches, like data centers,” he says. “Thieves and organized crime are not looking for retailers sending Social Security numbers in email, they're looking for databases containing sensitive information.”
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: scmagazineus.com
By: Greg Masters
While 39 states have already passed data protection laws, most requiring disclosure of breaches, and several other states with data laws introduced, Nevada's statute is thought to be the first law requiring encryption of transmitted data.
But a consensus is hard to reach on what effect this law might have.
“This isn't that different from HIPPA or GLBA restrictions on the transmission of personal health information or financial info or state customer information disclosure laws,” says Peter Firstbrook, a research director at Gartner. “So if companies are complying with those regulations, they should have the ability to adjust their policy to comply with this law. I suspect other states will follow and it would be nice if they harmonized the laws so that it was easier for companies to certify compliance. This will likely be harder for small business to comply with.”
Phil Neray, vice president of marketing at Guardium, echoes Firstbrook, saying that any business governed by PCI is already encrypting data in transit in order to be compliant. While he says any law that encourages better security is a good thing, he argues that hackers are looking for bigger targets than email attachments.“The focus should be on areas that have potential for massive data breaches, like data centers,” he says. “Thieves and organized crime are not looking for retailers sending Social Security numbers in email, they're looking for databases containing sensitive information.”
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: scmagazineus.com
By: Greg Masters
Bush E-Mail Records Could Be Lost To History
Since the presidential transition from Ronald Reagan to George H.W. Bush, George Washington University's National Security Archive has been a watchdog of federal e-mail preservation policies. Most recently the archive, which manages a library of security documents, joined a lawsuit that seeks to hold the George W. Bush White House and the National Archives and Records Administration accountable for backing up and cataloging electronic records, which must be preserved under the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act.
NationalJournal.com's Theresa Poulson spoke with Meredith Fuchs, the general counsel to the National Security Archive, before the election about the risks of the upcoming transition and the organization's expectations for the next president. Edited excerpts follow. Visit the archives page for more Insider Interviews.
Q: Why did the National Security Archive get involved with the lawsuit?
Fuchs: What happened when the Bush administration came in is that they scrapped the e-mail archiving system [established under the Clinton administration].... and they didn't replace it. They actually did develop a replacement in consultation with National Archives, but they made the decision not to install it. So, for the eight years of the Bush administration, there is no archive of the e-mails that were sent or received within the White House....
This issue first came to light, at least to our knowledge, during the investigation and the trial of "Scooter" Libby, who was the vice presidential aide who was prosecuted for disclosing that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent.... During that case, the prosecutors told Libby's defense lawyers that certain records in the office of the vice president, e-mail records, were just missing, and they didn't have copies of them to provide. So we were aware of that, and then several months later, an organization called [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington], actually based on information they got from a confidential source, issued a report saying that it's not just some e-mails in the office of the vice president, it was, in fact, potentially 5 million e-mails from throughout the White House and the executive office of the president. And once we heard about that, that's when we filed our suit.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: nationaljournal.com
NationalJournal.com's Theresa Poulson spoke with Meredith Fuchs, the general counsel to the National Security Archive, before the election about the risks of the upcoming transition and the organization's expectations for the next president. Edited excerpts follow. Visit the archives page for more Insider Interviews.
Q: Why did the National Security Archive get involved with the lawsuit?
Fuchs: What happened when the Bush administration came in is that they scrapped the e-mail archiving system [established under the Clinton administration].... and they didn't replace it. They actually did develop a replacement in consultation with National Archives, but they made the decision not to install it. So, for the eight years of the Bush administration, there is no archive of the e-mails that were sent or received within the White House....
This issue first came to light, at least to our knowledge, during the investigation and the trial of "Scooter" Libby, who was the vice presidential aide who was prosecuted for disclosing that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent.... During that case, the prosecutors told Libby's defense lawyers that certain records in the office of the vice president, e-mail records, were just missing, and they didn't have copies of them to provide. So we were aware of that, and then several months later, an organization called [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington], actually based on information they got from a confidential source, issued a report saying that it's not just some e-mails in the office of the vice president, it was, in fact, potentially 5 million e-mails from throughout the White House and the executive office of the president. And once we heard about that, that's when we filed our suit.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: nationaljournal.com
Friday, November 07, 2008
Text Messaging, Facebook Can Get You in Legal Trouble
How we miss the quaint times when text was just a quick way to chat with buddies. Today, these fleeting missives, now integral to so many work lives, amount to a multimillion-dollar corporate risk. Organizations sit largely unprepared while text messages replace e-mail as the digital smoking gun.
You know how it goes: On mobile devices, employees peck out details of their private lives, remarks about colleagues and, inadvertently or not, confidential business information. Things people would never say out loud or in memos fly around in text, often memorialized in digital archives that you don't control. It's juice for a legal adversary.
Text messages about employee firings and extramarital sex recently brought down Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty.
Last year, three police officers sued the city and the mayor for wrongful termination, claiming they were whistle-blowers who had been retaliated against for discussing possible misconduct in Kilpatrick's administration. During the case, Beatty testified that one officer, Gary Brown, "was not fired." But text messages subpoenaed from SkyTel, which provides pagers to the city, said otherwise.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: computerworld.com
By: Kim S. Nash
You know how it goes: On mobile devices, employees peck out details of their private lives, remarks about colleagues and, inadvertently or not, confidential business information. Things people would never say out loud or in memos fly around in text, often memorialized in digital archives that you don't control. It's juice for a legal adversary.
Text messages about employee firings and extramarital sex recently brought down Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty.
Last year, three police officers sued the city and the mayor for wrongful termination, claiming they were whistle-blowers who had been retaliated against for discussing possible misconduct in Kilpatrick's administration. During the case, Beatty testified that one officer, Gary Brown, "was not fired." But text messages subpoenaed from SkyTel, which provides pagers to the city, said otherwise.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: computerworld.com
By: Kim S. Nash
New Rule 502: A Little Help Is Better Than None
Make no mistake about it. For every lawyer who ever feared sending privileged communications to a non-privileged person -- in particular the other side -- the president's recent signature on an amendment to Federal Rule of Evidence 502 is a godsend.
One of the great fears of such an accidental mistake is now substantially ameliorated. And the relief does not come any too soon. In a world of electronic discovery and the possibility of sending an e-mail to the wrong person by looking at one's computer keyboard cross-eyed, Rule 502 will now assure the errant lawyer that the mere act of sending privileged documents to an unintended recipient will not act as a waiver of the subject matter of the inadvertently disclosed communications so long as the lawyer took reasonable care in the review of the documents.
Indeed the legislation goes as far as jurisprudentially possible to provide this protection not just in federal court but in certain state court proceedings.
So can we neurotic lawyers now breathe a big sigh of relief that the Congress has come to our rescue? Not really. Because four really important issues in this context are not addressed by new Rule 502.
First, the new rule does not tell us what happens with respect to the peripatetic documents themselves. One might breathe a little easier knowing the other side cannot ask for another thousand related documents simply because the other side received two or three. But the two or three in and of themselves might reveal juicy information. Can the opposing counsel read them? Share them with opposing counsel's client? Use them in deposition and at trial?
To Continue Reading: Click Here-------------------------------------------------
Source: law.com
By: Lawrence J. Fox
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Clients' data missing, Harvard Law warns
Computer backup lost during transit
Harvard Law School is alerting thousands of clients from a legal services clinic after a computer tape containing their Social Security numbers, addresses, and financial information was lost in September.
The personal information, dating back 10 years, belonged to about 21,000 people who sought help through the school's legal services center in Jamaica Plain, Robert London, a school spokesman, said yesterday. About 8,000 records of present and former clients contained Social Security numbers; another 13,000 had other identification information.
There is no indication that the tape, which was used to back up computer records, has been accessed, he said.
London said the risks of identity theft were low. The database is protected with a password and cannot be read without special equipment, he said. The missing tape does not have any markings to indicate the type of information it contains.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: boston.com
By: Tracy Jan
Harvard Law School is alerting thousands of clients from a legal services clinic after a computer tape containing their Social Security numbers, addresses, and financial information was lost in September.
The personal information, dating back 10 years, belonged to about 21,000 people who sought help through the school's legal services center in Jamaica Plain, Robert London, a school spokesman, said yesterday. About 8,000 records of present and former clients contained Social Security numbers; another 13,000 had other identification information.
There is no indication that the tape, which was used to back up computer records, has been accessed, he said.
London said the risks of identity theft were low. The database is protected with a password and cannot be read without special equipment, he said. The missing tape does not have any markings to indicate the type of information it contains.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-------------------------------------------------
Source: boston.com
By: Tracy Jan
Mo. gov. wants e-mail lawsuit dismissed
An attorney representing Gov. Matt Blunt against a lawsuit over access to his office's e-mail records urged a state trial judge to dismiss the case Wednesday.
Former Supreme Court Judge John Holstein, who represents the Republican governor, said the lawsuit doesn't offer evidence for many of its allegations and it's still unclear exactly who is suing. Holstein, using the example of a lawsuit in an automobile case, said someone can't sue and accuse another of driving illegally without explaining how.
"You can't just say you're driving improperly, you have to say what's improper about it," he said. "You can't just make it up out of whole-cloth as the mood suits you."
The e-mail lawsuit was filed by a former Democratic lieutenant governor and a prominent Republican attorney, who were each appointed by Cole County Judge Richard Callahan as special assistant attorneys general.
The two attorneys are continuing a suit that seeks access to backup e-mail tapes from the governor's office that was initially filed by special investigators selected by Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon to look into allegations that the Republican governor's office violated the state Sunshine Law by deleting e-mails.
The amended lawsuit renews an assertion that someone acting under the control of the governor's office sought to destroy backup e-mail records to avoid complying with a Sunshine Law request by The Associated Press.
The lawsuit seeks court rulings on whether e-mails are subject to Missouri's open-records and document retention laws and asks a judge to order Blunt's office to provide its e-mail records at no cost to investigators.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: bnd.com
By: Chris Blank
Former Supreme Court Judge John Holstein, who represents the Republican governor, said the lawsuit doesn't offer evidence for many of its allegations and it's still unclear exactly who is suing. Holstein, using the example of a lawsuit in an automobile case, said someone can't sue and accuse another of driving illegally without explaining how.
"You can't just say you're driving improperly, you have to say what's improper about it," he said. "You can't just make it up out of whole-cloth as the mood suits you."
The e-mail lawsuit was filed by a former Democratic lieutenant governor and a prominent Republican attorney, who were each appointed by Cole County Judge Richard Callahan as special assistant attorneys general.
The two attorneys are continuing a suit that seeks access to backup e-mail tapes from the governor's office that was initially filed by special investigators selected by Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon to look into allegations that the Republican governor's office violated the state Sunshine Law by deleting e-mails.
The amended lawsuit renews an assertion that someone acting under the control of the governor's office sought to destroy backup e-mail records to avoid complying with a Sunshine Law request by The Associated Press.
The lawsuit seeks court rulings on whether e-mails are subject to Missouri's open-records and document retention laws and asks a judge to order Blunt's office to provide its e-mail records at no cost to investigators.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: bnd.com
By: Chris Blank
Backup, Replication and Disaster Recovery
Most large and midsize law firms today have disaster recovery plans in place. But are the plans realistic? Do they truly meet the needs of the organization? Do they really bring to the project the full range of options that are available to sophisticated providers of legal services? These questions are of paramount importance for those managing a disaster recovery plan, since the potential of natural disasters or terrorist threats is becoming an increasingly bigger concern for businesses to face.
Two key components of a modern DR plan are backup and replication. DR projects, like any other undertaken by an IT department, compete with other projects on a firm's information technology to-do list. Replication used to be something that was dependent upon resources unavailable to many firms, such as backup or secondary data centers. However, such a project can become more feasible for the small and midsize firm by renting space for its hardware at a network services provider. Other advances have occurred in software that enable smaller and midsize firms to leverage their internal resources to create far more robust plans than previously possible.
One common mistake in DR strategy is that it is seen as purely an IT responsibility. In actuality, the subject should be treated as a business continuity measure, which means that while very much a technology concern, it is an issue that affects the whole firm's livelihood. Even with a firm's top management buy-in, the budgetary realities of DR are often greatly underestimated. Nonetheless, there are ways -- with sophisticated information technology leadership and the right management of vendors -- to execute an appropriate backup and replication plan and disaster recovery strategy.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Ben Weinberger
Two key components of a modern DR plan are backup and replication. DR projects, like any other undertaken by an IT department, compete with other projects on a firm's information technology to-do list. Replication used to be something that was dependent upon resources unavailable to many firms, such as backup or secondary data centers. However, such a project can become more feasible for the small and midsize firm by renting space for its hardware at a network services provider. Other advances have occurred in software that enable smaller and midsize firms to leverage their internal resources to create far more robust plans than previously possible.
One common mistake in DR strategy is that it is seen as purely an IT responsibility. In actuality, the subject should be treated as a business continuity measure, which means that while very much a technology concern, it is an issue that affects the whole firm's livelihood. Even with a firm's top management buy-in, the budgetary realities of DR are often greatly underestimated. Nonetheless, there are ways -- with sophisticated information technology leadership and the right management of vendors -- to execute an appropriate backup and replication plan and disaster recovery strategy.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Ben Weinberger
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Online Backup Is Promising Option for IT Managers
Companies are beginning to hand the task of backing up data to third parties
In many organizations, backing up data has been one of the main jobs of the IT department and one that offers the least fun. It is a task that has to occur daily -- at least. It chews up valuable time and resources, can lead to significant problems if not completed properly, has become more important with recent government regulations, and has about as much appeal as an unsalted cracker. After all, how exciting is it to sit and wait for data to be written to a tape or a disk?
In a growing number of instances, an alternative to this long-standing grunt work is emerging: Companies are beginning to hand the task over to third parties. That change means no more sitting and waiting for a tape or disk to copy, no more worrying about where you might have put said tape or disk, and having greater redundancy if your corporate data gets lost.
Yet, there are limitations with these services. In many cases, there is not sufficient bandwidth available to support the vast amount of data that large enterprises need to back up, so early adopters tend to be small and medium-sized businesses. Also, there are different approaches for delivering these services, and the market is splintering between data center backup -- its traditional base -- and end-user backup, an emerging market segment. In sum, while there is a lot of interest in this category of service, there are more questions than answers about whether it is a viable backup alternative for many companies.
In fact, few companies are now using online backup. Analysts peg the amount of money spent annually on these services at around a few hundred million dollars. Yet, it has attracted a wide variety of suppliers. AmeriVault Corp. , Asigra Inc. , Carbonite Inc. , DataVault, EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Intronis LLC , Iron Mountain Inc. (NYSE: IRM), Seagate Technology Inc. (NYSE: STX), and Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) are some of the suppliers offering backup services.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-------------------------------------------------
Source: byteandswitch.com
By: Paul Korzeniowski
In many organizations, backing up data has been one of the main jobs of the IT department and one that offers the least fun. It is a task that has to occur daily -- at least. It chews up valuable time and resources, can lead to significant problems if not completed properly, has become more important with recent government regulations, and has about as much appeal as an unsalted cracker. After all, how exciting is it to sit and wait for data to be written to a tape or a disk?
In a growing number of instances, an alternative to this long-standing grunt work is emerging: Companies are beginning to hand the task over to third parties. That change means no more sitting and waiting for a tape or disk to copy, no more worrying about where you might have put said tape or disk, and having greater redundancy if your corporate data gets lost.
Yet, there are limitations with these services. In many cases, there is not sufficient bandwidth available to support the vast amount of data that large enterprises need to back up, so early adopters tend to be small and medium-sized businesses. Also, there are different approaches for delivering these services, and the market is splintering between data center backup -- its traditional base -- and end-user backup, an emerging market segment. In sum, while there is a lot of interest in this category of service, there are more questions than answers about whether it is a viable backup alternative for many companies.
In fact, few companies are now using online backup. Analysts peg the amount of money spent annually on these services at around a few hundred million dollars. Yet, it has attracted a wide variety of suppliers. AmeriVault Corp. , Asigra Inc. , Carbonite Inc. , DataVault, EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Intronis LLC , Iron Mountain Inc. (NYSE: IRM), Seagate Technology Inc. (NYSE: STX), and Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) are some of the suppliers offering backup services.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: byteandswitch.com
By: Paul Korzeniowski
Managing the Social-Networking Data Sieve
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites practically beg you to reveal even more information about yourself. Log on and you're asked: What are you doing? What are you doing right now? What are you working on?
Whether they mean to or not, any of your employees active on these sites can give away company secrets as easily as they do personal ones, 150-odd characters at a time. For CIOs trying to get a grip on social networking by employees, Tom Mighell, a lawyer and senior manager at Fios, an electronic-discovery consulting firm, offers some starting points:
1. Accept and train. Many employees will use social networking tools regardless of what you want them to do. Instead of trying to stop them, teach them what to say, or what not to say, about work. For example, employees might be tempted to promote the features of a new product. But should that product become the subject of a product liability claim, those statements could be used as damning evidence, Mighell says. Also, they should be clear about which statements are opinion, which are fact. Talk frankly about the legal risks.
2. Influence the socializing. Show how to use social networking tools productively and creatively for work without giving away too much information. For example, solicit expertise but don't get too specific.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: networkworld.com
By: Kim S. Nash
Whether they mean to or not, any of your employees active on these sites can give away company secrets as easily as they do personal ones, 150-odd characters at a time. For CIOs trying to get a grip on social networking by employees, Tom Mighell, a lawyer and senior manager at Fios, an electronic-discovery consulting firm, offers some starting points:
1. Accept and train. Many employees will use social networking tools regardless of what you want them to do. Instead of trying to stop them, teach them what to say, or what not to say, about work. For example, employees might be tempted to promote the features of a new product. But should that product become the subject of a product liability claim, those statements could be used as damning evidence, Mighell says. Also, they should be clear about which statements are opinion, which are fact. Talk frankly about the legal risks.
2. Influence the socializing. Show how to use social networking tools productively and creatively for work without giving away too much information. For example, solicit expertise but don't get too specific.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: networkworld.com
By: Kim S. Nash
Tips to Consider When Switching Backup Providers
Historically, many companies have endured the inadequacies of their backup systems because either they didn’t know there was a better solution or feared that making a change would be too expensive, risky and complicated. Over time, however, applying quick fixes to bolster insufficient data protection becomes a never-ending cycle, punctuated by unnecessary hardware acquisitions as well as higher overhead and maintenance costs.
Moreover, it becomes increasingly difficult to extract appropriate business value from information trapped in inflexible, flawed backup software. So, why do some IT organizations limp along with broken backups and restores while others gain full stride with more powerful, robust data protection solutions? What stops some companies from considering a “rip and replace” project is the cost of migrating to a new platform after they’ve sunk huge costs into the existing one. Another concern surrounds the volumes of archived information on tape media, which would need to be migrated to the new system. If archived information can’t be migrated easily and quickly, retention periods could be jeopardized.
Fortunately, switch-savvy IT managers know that replacing cumbersome, hard-to-manage legacy platforms with simple yet more robust solutions doesn’t have to be arduous and budget busting. By following a series of methodical steps, it’s not only possible to determine when to switch but also to facilitate a smooth, seamless replacement project that lives up to expectations, obtains quick ROI, and keeps pace with escalating corporate demands.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: wwpi.com
By: David West
Moreover, it becomes increasingly difficult to extract appropriate business value from information trapped in inflexible, flawed backup software. So, why do some IT organizations limp along with broken backups and restores while others gain full stride with more powerful, robust data protection solutions? What stops some companies from considering a “rip and replace” project is the cost of migrating to a new platform after they’ve sunk huge costs into the existing one. Another concern surrounds the volumes of archived information on tape media, which would need to be migrated to the new system. If archived information can’t be migrated easily and quickly, retention periods could be jeopardized.
Fortunately, switch-savvy IT managers know that replacing cumbersome, hard-to-manage legacy platforms with simple yet more robust solutions doesn’t have to be arduous and budget busting. By following a series of methodical steps, it’s not only possible to determine when to switch but also to facilitate a smooth, seamless replacement project that lives up to expectations, obtains quick ROI, and keeps pace with escalating corporate demands.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: wwpi.com
By: David West
Ready, steady, sue me!
With commercial disputes on the rise in economic downturns, business owners need to better organise their electronic documents to be litigation ready, say Australia's leading legal experts.
According to Allison Stanfield, co-founder of e.law Australia, which provides for electronic discovery and storage of evidence, litigation is increasingly expensive, but the additional costs of corporate data used in 'electronic discovery' can blow out the cost of a claim even further.
''Smaller organisations are at greater risk because if they get sued, it could destroy them.''Getting information off back-up tapes is expensive but if it's archived properly then it doesn't have to be that way.
''However, you may need professional help to organise your corporate information and understand the legal component,'' she adds.
Alistair Little, partner of TressCox Lawyers and head of the Sydney commercial litigation practice, says having a good IT person in place or an internal department should overcome data disorganisation but the length of time that a business retains their data depends upon the industry and the jurisdiction.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: smallbusiness.smh.com.au
According to Allison Stanfield, co-founder of e.law Australia, which provides for electronic discovery and storage of evidence, litigation is increasingly expensive, but the additional costs of corporate data used in 'electronic discovery' can blow out the cost of a claim even further.
''Smaller organisations are at greater risk because if they get sued, it could destroy them.''Getting information off back-up tapes is expensive but if it's archived properly then it doesn't have to be that way.
''However, you may need professional help to organise your corporate information and understand the legal component,'' she adds.
Alistair Little, partner of TressCox Lawyers and head of the Sydney commercial litigation practice, says having a good IT person in place or an internal department should overcome data disorganisation but the length of time that a business retains their data depends upon the industry and the jurisdiction.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: smallbusiness.smh.com.au
Google's Chrome Browser Prompts Privacy Concerns
Perhaps the biggest threat to Google's increasing dominance of Internet search and advertising is the rising fear, justified or not, that Google's broadening reach is giving it unchecked power.
This scrutiny goes deeper than the skeptical eye that lawmakers and the Justice Department have given to Google's proposed ad partnership with Yahoo. Many objections to that deal are financial, and surround whether Google and Yahoo could unfairly drive up online ad prices.
A bigger long-term concern for Google could be criticisms over something less tangible -- privacy. Increasingly, as Google burrows deeper into everyday computing, its product announcements are prompting questions about its ability to gather more potentially sensitive personal information from users.
Why does Google log the details of search queries for so long? What does it do with the information? Does it combine data from the search engine with information it collects through other avenues -- such as its recently released Web browser, Chrome?
Data gathered through most of the company's services "disappears into a black hole once it hits the Googleplex," said Simon Davies, director of London-based Privacy International, referring to Google's headquarters. "It's impossible to track that information."
Google -- whose corporate motto is "Don't Be Evil" -- generally sees such concerns as misinformed. For instance, the company says it stores the queries made through its popular search engine primarily so it can improve the service.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Rachel Metz
This scrutiny goes deeper than the skeptical eye that lawmakers and the Justice Department have given to Google's proposed ad partnership with Yahoo. Many objections to that deal are financial, and surround whether Google and Yahoo could unfairly drive up online ad prices.
A bigger long-term concern for Google could be criticisms over something less tangible -- privacy. Increasingly, as Google burrows deeper into everyday computing, its product announcements are prompting questions about its ability to gather more potentially sensitive personal information from users.
Why does Google log the details of search queries for so long? What does it do with the information? Does it combine data from the search engine with information it collects through other avenues -- such as its recently released Web browser, Chrome?
Data gathered through most of the company's services "disappears into a black hole once it hits the Googleplex," said Simon Davies, director of London-based Privacy International, referring to Google's headquarters. "It's impossible to track that information."
Google -- whose corporate motto is "Don't Be Evil" -- generally sees such concerns as misinformed. For instance, the company says it stores the queries made through its popular search engine primarily so it can improve the service.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Rachel Metz
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Data Detours In Internal Investigations In EU Countries: Part II
In the first part of this article, which appeared last month, the authors discussed the European Union ("EU") Data Protection Directive and the challenges it creates in connection with the collection and review of electronic records and data for an internal investigation. This month, the authors conclude their analysis with a discussion of possible work-arounds to enable lawyers to collect records and data from companies with computer networks and servers in the EU.
As discussed previously, the EU Data Protection Directive contains eight general restrictions that apply to the handling of personal data, including data located in the workplace. Two of these restrictions, regarding consent and onward transfer, are significant for internal investigations when timely collection and processing of potentially relevant data for review is critical. We now discuss each of these two restrictions in turn.
Consent
The Directive requires that a data subject provide "unambiguous" consent to personal data processing, unless certain conditions apply, such as when the processing is necessary to:
Perform a contract to which the data subject is a party ( e.g. , an employment contract) or to protect vital interests of the subject;
Comply with legal obligations of the controller;
Perform tasks in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller or third party to whom the data is disclosed; or
Pursue legitimate interests of the controller, except where those interests are overridden by the fundamental rights of the data subject.1
While an internal investigation authorized by a board of directors is plainly a legitimate interest of a "data controller" ( i.e. , the company through its management or board), that investigation almost always implicates individual employees who are likely to complain that their rights have been compromised where any data that they have created, whether personal or related to the company, is collected without their consent. Even though such data may be stored on company computers and networks and the company may have an explicit policy, acknowledged by each employee, making clear that the company has a right to such data, the emphasis on employee protections in the Directive makes processing data without employee consent a somewhat risky proposition. As explained earlier, the definition of, and the exceptions to, "personal data" under the Directive are ambiguous. Obtaining employee consent provides the least risky path under the Directive (and most national laws of EU countries) for data collection and further processing. Before any decision is made to proceed down the path of obtaining employee consent, the client should be advised that resolving consent issues with current employees will likely take time, even when a board and/or senior management directs employees to cooperate fully with company counsel.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Metropolitan Corporate Counsel
By: Beryl A. Howell and Laura S. Wertheimer
As discussed previously, the EU Data Protection Directive contains eight general restrictions that apply to the handling of personal data, including data located in the workplace. Two of these restrictions, regarding consent and onward transfer, are significant for internal investigations when timely collection and processing of potentially relevant data for review is critical. We now discuss each of these two restrictions in turn.
Consent
The Directive requires that a data subject provide "unambiguous" consent to personal data processing, unless certain conditions apply, such as when the processing is necessary to:
Perform a contract to which the data subject is a party ( e.g. , an employment contract) or to protect vital interests of the subject;
Comply with legal obligations of the controller;
Perform tasks in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller or third party to whom the data is disclosed; or
Pursue legitimate interests of the controller, except where those interests are overridden by the fundamental rights of the data subject.1
While an internal investigation authorized by a board of directors is plainly a legitimate interest of a "data controller" ( i.e. , the company through its management or board), that investigation almost always implicates individual employees who are likely to complain that their rights have been compromised where any data that they have created, whether personal or related to the company, is collected without their consent. Even though such data may be stored on company computers and networks and the company may have an explicit policy, acknowledged by each employee, making clear that the company has a right to such data, the emphasis on employee protections in the Directive makes processing data without employee consent a somewhat risky proposition. As explained earlier, the definition of, and the exceptions to, "personal data" under the Directive are ambiguous. Obtaining employee consent provides the least risky path under the Directive (and most national laws of EU countries) for data collection and further processing. Before any decision is made to proceed down the path of obtaining employee consent, the client should be advised that resolving consent issues with current employees will likely take time, even when a board and/or senior management directs employees to cooperate fully with company counsel.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Metropolitan Corporate Counsel
By: Beryl A. Howell and Laura S. Wertheimer
Electronic Discovery: Can A Litigation Tool Be Helpful To The Due Diligence Process?
Editor: Would you tell our readers something about your professional experience and your company?
Thornquist: I began my legal career at Rogers & Wells - now Clifford Chance - in 1991. My focus there was on international securities and mergers and acquisitions. I later joined Prudential Financial in international real estate fund formation and investment, then counseled technology companies for a couple of years before landing at SPi in 2003. SPi is a global provider of business process outsourcing services and carries on activities in a number of areas, including medical transcription, revenue cycle management, and publishing and litigation support. In the litigation support space, SPi provides document coding, managed review and electronic data discovery, or EDD as it is commonly known. I first became involved in EDD at SPi, working alongside a couple of the industry's top vets.
Editor: Would you give us an overview of what is meant by EDD?
Thornquist: In very simple terms, EDD involves taking a body of data that may be potentially relevant and discoverable in litigation and winnowing it down to a subset that has a much greater likelihood of relevance. The intent is to reduce costs by reducing the amount of data to be reviewed by attorneys to a more manageable level. In light of the volume of data that companies accumulate, there can be a tremendous cost associated with this process. In litigation, the parties routinely focus on email, where people communicate without a filter, where they leave a trail of evidence. The duty to comb through all that data resulted in the birth of an industry. A host of tools and techniques, always evolving, is used to make it possible for litigants to get through all their data in a way that is defensible and sensible and cost-efficient.
Editor: Most of us think of EDD as a litigation tool. I understand that you advocate using EDD in the due diligence process in connection with acquiring companies.
Thornquist: Incorporating EDD techniques can be very useful in some, though hardly all, acquisitions. There are important questions to ask. Are there significant holes in the diligence that aren't being answered through reviewing the documents made available by questioning management or by using traditional diligence? Can a highly targeted search of the target's email or other data shed some light? Very importantly, is the target open to revealing potentially sensitive information? Does the buyer have the leverage and the deep suspicion to insist?
Needless to say, targets resist giving access to their email server. They're worried about costs, delays, and allowing an investigation that is highly unusual. I understand the arguments against it. Cutting the other way is the fact that the documents in the seller's data room are very highly vetted. Suppose you're acquiring a company in a distress sale. The seller puts a value on its assets, for example the value of its IP or its investments. If things don't add up, and if you're a buyer with leverage, don't you want to look at a highly targeted set of data, the emails where the seller's employees are discussing these assets? In light of the exposure to liability here - the duty imposed on lawyers of using reasonable care in conducting diligence - the acquirer may want to press for a deeper look. Many will resist this notion because it is not widespread. But only a few years ago, EDD was not widespread in litigation. I see it as only a matter of time before it becomes a component of diligence when things are murky. And think of this - if a deal goes badly after it closes, and litigation follows, the same email you decided not to look at during diligence will probably be at the heart of the ensuing litigation. People will want to know why this information was overlooked.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Metropolitan Corporate Counsel
By: Interview of David Thornquist
Thornquist: I began my legal career at Rogers & Wells - now Clifford Chance - in 1991. My focus there was on international securities and mergers and acquisitions. I later joined Prudential Financial in international real estate fund formation and investment, then counseled technology companies for a couple of years before landing at SPi in 2003. SPi is a global provider of business process outsourcing services and carries on activities in a number of areas, including medical transcription, revenue cycle management, and publishing and litigation support. In the litigation support space, SPi provides document coding, managed review and electronic data discovery, or EDD as it is commonly known. I first became involved in EDD at SPi, working alongside a couple of the industry's top vets.
Editor: Would you give us an overview of what is meant by EDD?
Thornquist: In very simple terms, EDD involves taking a body of data that may be potentially relevant and discoverable in litigation and winnowing it down to a subset that has a much greater likelihood of relevance. The intent is to reduce costs by reducing the amount of data to be reviewed by attorneys to a more manageable level. In light of the volume of data that companies accumulate, there can be a tremendous cost associated with this process. In litigation, the parties routinely focus on email, where people communicate without a filter, where they leave a trail of evidence. The duty to comb through all that data resulted in the birth of an industry. A host of tools and techniques, always evolving, is used to make it possible for litigants to get through all their data in a way that is defensible and sensible and cost-efficient.
Editor: Most of us think of EDD as a litigation tool. I understand that you advocate using EDD in the due diligence process in connection with acquiring companies.
Thornquist: Incorporating EDD techniques can be very useful in some, though hardly all, acquisitions. There are important questions to ask. Are there significant holes in the diligence that aren't being answered through reviewing the documents made available by questioning management or by using traditional diligence? Can a highly targeted search of the target's email or other data shed some light? Very importantly, is the target open to revealing potentially sensitive information? Does the buyer have the leverage and the deep suspicion to insist?
Needless to say, targets resist giving access to their email server. They're worried about costs, delays, and allowing an investigation that is highly unusual. I understand the arguments against it. Cutting the other way is the fact that the documents in the seller's data room are very highly vetted. Suppose you're acquiring a company in a distress sale. The seller puts a value on its assets, for example the value of its IP or its investments. If things don't add up, and if you're a buyer with leverage, don't you want to look at a highly targeted set of data, the emails where the seller's employees are discussing these assets? In light of the exposure to liability here - the duty imposed on lawyers of using reasonable care in conducting diligence - the acquirer may want to press for a deeper look. Many will resist this notion because it is not widespread. But only a few years ago, EDD was not widespread in litigation. I see it as only a matter of time before it becomes a component of diligence when things are murky. And think of this - if a deal goes badly after it closes, and litigation follows, the same email you decided not to look at during diligence will probably be at the heart of the ensuing litigation. People will want to know why this information was overlooked.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Metropolitan Corporate Counsel
By: Interview of David Thornquist
eDiscovery: The Importance of Taking Proactive Steps
It is important to automate the eDiscovery workflow, before your company gets hit with a lawsuit
There is an old story about three men with bad eyesight trying to describe an elephant by touch. The one feeling the trunk insists the animal is long and narrow and flexible. The one examining the foot claims it is made from horn and is squat. The one examining the ear insists it is floppy and wide like sail. A bitter argument ensues and the men never do figure it out.
Understanding eDiscovery is a lot like that elephant, who was all of those things the men were insisting upon and more. Moving back and seeing the eDiscovery elephant in perspective -- rather than a myopic insistence on some of its parts -- is the key to understanding it. And understand it you must, or risk being knocked down by the surging wave of data and strict new requirements surrounding data discovery.
This series, written by research firm Taneja Group, aims to help attorneys, storage admins, and IT managers better understand the world of litigation eDiscovery. It will break down the eDiscovery workflow into five major categories of classification, collection, preservation, review, and production. It will then talk about how the workflow between elements benefits the process from beginning to end, and what buying eDiscovery platforms and tools should accomplish for eDiscovery purchasers.
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Source: byteandswitch.com
By: Christine Taylor
There is an old story about three men with bad eyesight trying to describe an elephant by touch. The one feeling the trunk insists the animal is long and narrow and flexible. The one examining the foot claims it is made from horn and is squat. The one examining the ear insists it is floppy and wide like sail. A bitter argument ensues and the men never do figure it out.
Understanding eDiscovery is a lot like that elephant, who was all of those things the men were insisting upon and more. Moving back and seeing the eDiscovery elephant in perspective -- rather than a myopic insistence on some of its parts -- is the key to understanding it. And understand it you must, or risk being knocked down by the surging wave of data and strict new requirements surrounding data discovery.
This series, written by research firm Taneja Group, aims to help attorneys, storage admins, and IT managers better understand the world of litigation eDiscovery. It will break down the eDiscovery workflow into five major categories of classification, collection, preservation, review, and production. It will then talk about how the workflow between elements benefits the process from beginning to end, and what buying eDiscovery platforms and tools should accomplish for eDiscovery purchasers.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: byteandswitch.com
By: Christine Taylor
The evolving federation of search
Search is one of those technologies customers take for granted. After all, search and retrieval was the first application to debut in the nascent document management industry of the early ’90s. Text was indexed manually and automatically and could be searched within the search and retrieval application. Then search and retrieval became a component of more complex applications like imaging and workflow, and later knowledge management and portals. With the emergence of Google, however, search became a dominant standalone app again. But as much cachet as that powerful product has, it’s not the only game in town.
Google may own the Web, but other products like it have staked out federated search and other disciplines as their own dominion. (Federated search gives users the ability to search repositories of different content management vendors within the enterprise by means of adapters.) All have their distinct strengths, but many have specialized in target applications and vertical markets, and can find files as different as audio, video and text.
But given that profligate growth of multipurpose search products, what market forces are driving vendors to keep evolving more unique focus and features? The short answer is the phenomenal proliferation of information across the global enterprise; the disparate locations of that data—common applications like SharePoint, IBM Lotus Notes, SAP, as well as apps unique to the organization like shared and network drives; and the types of data—structured and unstructured. But that said, what’s key to the new techniques is that their applications and vertical markets are also almost limitless and don’t require the user to change legacy applications and formats to get at legacy information. Adapters to different apps solve that problem.
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Source: KMWorld.com
By: John Harney
Google may own the Web, but other products like it have staked out federated search and other disciplines as their own dominion. (Federated search gives users the ability to search repositories of different content management vendors within the enterprise by means of adapters.) All have their distinct strengths, but many have specialized in target applications and vertical markets, and can find files as different as audio, video and text.
But given that profligate growth of multipurpose search products, what market forces are driving vendors to keep evolving more unique focus and features? The short answer is the phenomenal proliferation of information across the global enterprise; the disparate locations of that data—common applications like SharePoint, IBM Lotus Notes, SAP, as well as apps unique to the organization like shared and network drives; and the types of data—structured and unstructured. But that said, what’s key to the new techniques is that their applications and vertical markets are also almost limitless and don’t require the user to change legacy applications and formats to get at legacy information. Adapters to different apps solve that problem.
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Source: KMWorld.com
By: John Harney
Cutting-Edge Tools to Help Streamline EDD
The quickly increasing costs of e-discovery have had a dampening effect on lawyers' ability to formulate the best case strategy for their clients. That may be about to change. The e-discovery process is on the cusp of moving from basic to advanced, or version 1.0 to version 2.0. This article examines how lawyers can use new technologies to reduce costs to clients while still complying with discovery obligations. Ultimately, lawyers who embrace new e-discovery tools will be better equipped to meet their clients' needs with cost-effective solutions.
Electronic data ("e-data") presents unique problems in discovery. Although the data can be more easily searched, it is also more voluminous, widely dispersed and sometimes more difficult to track down than paper documents. E-mails alone often constitute thousands of pages of data in a case. Moreover, the fluid and changing nature of e-data allows multiple drafts of documents to be created quickly and easily. Metadata and the various platforms used to store e-data create additional complications in the e-discovery process. These complications, particularly when not planned for or managed properly, can result in significantly increased litigation and discovery costs.
As a result, many law firm clients seek to avoid such costs by "putting off" full-fledged e-discovery efforts. Such an approach can obviously have serious negative implications throughout the litigation process. Without access to potentially case-changing information and documents at an early stage, a lawyer's ability to provide her clients with meaningful early case assessment can be severely hampered. This can result in premature and poorly informed settlement decisions. Alternatively, a party that "puts off" e-discovery, but is unable to settle early can quickly find itself behind the discovery curve -- and potentially vulnerable to litigation and/or settlement pressures it might otherwise avoid.
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Source: law.com
By: Michael C. Lynch, Guy Wiggins and Conor S. Harris
Electronic data ("e-data") presents unique problems in discovery. Although the data can be more easily searched, it is also more voluminous, widely dispersed and sometimes more difficult to track down than paper documents. E-mails alone often constitute thousands of pages of data in a case. Moreover, the fluid and changing nature of e-data allows multiple drafts of documents to be created quickly and easily. Metadata and the various platforms used to store e-data create additional complications in the e-discovery process. These complications, particularly when not planned for or managed properly, can result in significantly increased litigation and discovery costs.
As a result, many law firm clients seek to avoid such costs by "putting off" full-fledged e-discovery efforts. Such an approach can obviously have serious negative implications throughout the litigation process. Without access to potentially case-changing information and documents at an early stage, a lawyer's ability to provide her clients with meaningful early case assessment can be severely hampered. This can result in premature and poorly informed settlement decisions. Alternatively, a party that "puts off" e-discovery, but is unable to settle early can quickly find itself behind the discovery curve -- and potentially vulnerable to litigation and/or settlement pressures it might otherwise avoid.
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Source: law.com
By: Michael C. Lynch, Guy Wiggins and Conor S. Harris
Monday, November 03, 2008
Does Board Portal Delivery Avert Legal Risks?
As general counsel and assistant corporate secretary at Mechanics Bank in Northern California, I always considered my financial institution's method for delivering its board books to our corporate directors in advance of their board meetings was fraught with peril and legal risk. The fact is that it was no different than what many corporations -- banking and otherwise -- do when distributing board materials in advance of their meetings.
Because our board of directors meets monthly, aside from June and August, the legal risks were multiplied as compared with corporations whose boards meet quarterly. I wasn't a math major, but understood the equation: 10 meetings means 10 sets of board books to be delivered to 13 directors, or 130 opportunities for materials to get lost in transit, intercepted or forwarded to inappropriate recipients. That's not even counting the meetings held by the board's six committees, which include audit and compensation committees, among others.
Mechanics Bank, of Richmond, Calif., is a $2.7 billion independent bank. We had employed a number of different board book delivery methods, depending on the director and where they were at the time the board materials were completed. These included overnight mail, e-mail and even hand delivery by bank employees.
E-mail delivery was cumbersome and risky, as it invited an easy way for directors to inadvertently communicate vital information digitally, a major issue from a risk management and e-discovery perspective. Overnight deliveries had me and other bank executives wondering if they really got the material; and hand delivery by bank employees was no better -- and extremely time consuming. And when previously distributed board books were updated prior to a meeting, there was a risk that now out-of-date copies still existed in e-mail and hard copy.
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Source: law.com
By: Kathleen Quenneville
Because our board of directors meets monthly, aside from June and August, the legal risks were multiplied as compared with corporations whose boards meet quarterly. I wasn't a math major, but understood the equation: 10 meetings means 10 sets of board books to be delivered to 13 directors, or 130 opportunities for materials to get lost in transit, intercepted or forwarded to inappropriate recipients. That's not even counting the meetings held by the board's six committees, which include audit and compensation committees, among others.
Mechanics Bank, of Richmond, Calif., is a $2.7 billion independent bank. We had employed a number of different board book delivery methods, depending on the director and where they were at the time the board materials were completed. These included overnight mail, e-mail and even hand delivery by bank employees.
E-mail delivery was cumbersome and risky, as it invited an easy way for directors to inadvertently communicate vital information digitally, a major issue from a risk management and e-discovery perspective. Overnight deliveries had me and other bank executives wondering if they really got the material; and hand delivery by bank employees was no better -- and extremely time consuming. And when previously distributed board books were updated prior to a meeting, there was a risk that now out-of-date copies still existed in e-mail and hard copy.
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Source: law.com
By: Kathleen Quenneville
Records management: BEWARE, PREPARE
Increases in data breaches and the development of electronic discovery (e-discovery) are prompting firms to closely re-examine their records retention and management policies. New breaches seem to be reported monthly, if not weekly. In August alone, data breaches were announced at Countrywide Financial, Bank of New York Mellon and Best Western, potentially affecting millions of customers. Such violations point to the need for companies to destroy electronic records and documents they no longer need, because additional records mean additional potential liability.
Destroying unneeded records also helps companies in terms of storage costs. The sheer volume of e-mails, attachments and other electronic records is growing rapidly, says Bobby Balachandran, chairman and CEO of Exterro, a company that provides legal hold and discovery management software solutions. That volume carries a cost, too, in the additional time it takes attorneys, accountants, etc., to go through unnecessary electronic records, Balachandran adds.
According to Chris Bradley, VP of marketing for MessageGate, nearly 80 percent of electronic discovery cases involve e-mail, so firms should employ tools that store e-mails based on the type of information in the messages. E-mails should be classified and stored according to importance: e-mail with information like cafeteria menus in one place; basic business information in another; and highly sensitive e-mails, such as communiqués between attorneys and clients, stored in yet another.
Such classification and storage enables a firm to purge the unimportant e-mails after a short period and establish rules for retention of other e-mails; it also lets employees retrieve pertinent e-mails more quickly in the event of a court case, according to Bradley.
"Companies tend to store a lot more information than is required," says James C. Bourke, partner with the law firm of WithumSmith+Brown. When companies first shifted to electronic records from paper ones, they tended to store everything. While that may be appropriate for some records, others are unnecessary after a few years. Most firms keep too much information rather than too little, Bourke adds.
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Source: KMWorld
By: Phil Britt
Destroying unneeded records also helps companies in terms of storage costs. The sheer volume of e-mails, attachments and other electronic records is growing rapidly, says Bobby Balachandran, chairman and CEO of Exterro, a company that provides legal hold and discovery management software solutions. That volume carries a cost, too, in the additional time it takes attorneys, accountants, etc., to go through unnecessary electronic records, Balachandran adds.
According to Chris Bradley, VP of marketing for MessageGate, nearly 80 percent of electronic discovery cases involve e-mail, so firms should employ tools that store e-mails based on the type of information in the messages. E-mails should be classified and stored according to importance: e-mail with information like cafeteria menus in one place; basic business information in another; and highly sensitive e-mails, such as communiqués between attorneys and clients, stored in yet another.
Such classification and storage enables a firm to purge the unimportant e-mails after a short period and establish rules for retention of other e-mails; it also lets employees retrieve pertinent e-mails more quickly in the event of a court case, according to Bradley.
"Companies tend to store a lot more information than is required," says James C. Bourke, partner with the law firm of WithumSmith+Brown. When companies first shifted to electronic records from paper ones, they tended to store everything. While that may be appropriate for some records, others are unnecessary after a few years. Most firms keep too much information rather than too little, Bourke adds.
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Source: KMWorld
By: Phil Britt
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Microsoft Stakes Its Place In The Cloud
We're going to look back at this era and wonder how we did without this other kind of computer in the cloud."
That's Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) chief software architect Ray Ozzie, in an interview with InformationWeek, just after Microsoft laid out how its most important products--Windows and Office--will change to stay relevant in "the cloud," where a lot of business computing is done outside a company's own data center.
Microsoft is creating Windows Azure, an operating system that will let companies run Windows applications and store files and data using Microsoft's data centers. It's also promising the Azure Services Platform, services that developers can use to establish user identities, manage workflows, synchronize data, and perform other functions as they build software programs on Microsoft's online computing platform.
The next version of Office will offer a browser-based option so users can read and edit documents online, as well as the ability for users to collaborate using Web, mobile, and client versions of Office. "It's not an adjunct, it's not a little thing off to the side," Ozzie says, promising that Office 14 will have "software plus services" at its core.
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Source: Informationweek
By: J. Nicholas Hoover
That's Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) chief software architect Ray Ozzie, in an interview with InformationWeek, just after Microsoft laid out how its most important products--Windows and Office--will change to stay relevant in "the cloud," where a lot of business computing is done outside a company's own data center.
Microsoft is creating Windows Azure, an operating system that will let companies run Windows applications and store files and data using Microsoft's data centers. It's also promising the Azure Services Platform, services that developers can use to establish user identities, manage workflows, synchronize data, and perform other functions as they build software programs on Microsoft's online computing platform.
The next version of Office will offer a browser-based option so users can read and edit documents online, as well as the ability for users to collaborate using Web, mobile, and client versions of Office. "It's not an adjunct, it's not a little thing off to the side," Ozzie says, promising that Office 14 will have "software plus services" at its core.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Informationweek
By: J. Nicholas Hoover
Make Molehills from Unstructured Data Mountains
The good news is that today's technology offers some help in dealing with the astounding volume of unstructured data, with some tools taking a very logical approach to leverage the strengths of both man and machine. One such advancement is the development of a visual method for analyzing and managing data collections.
Visual analytics, a new technology that graphically illustrates datasets, helps users quickly identify responsive documents for electronic discovery review.
The astounding volume of data produced, shared, and stored by organizations today is accelerating at a greater pace than ever before. Managing this information in the past posed some challenges, but what was once considered "a lot of data" is nothing compared to what is now measured in terabytes (1,000 gigabytes) or even petabytes (1 million gigabytes).
Prior to when most data was created and stored electronically, business professionals would create a document, use it for its intended purpose, and then periodically make decisions about whether or not to file the information. Organizations archived only that which they deemed truly important because they had neither the time nor the money to engage in elaborate document storage systems.
With the adoption of and increased reliance on computers, the decision to retain information no longer revolves around manually filing a document; it focuses on actively deleting it. But with the availability of petabytes of computer storage, workers may not feel the need to delete or destroy files. Predictably, organizations have amassed huge volumes of archived materials, saved on hard drives or back-up tape media.
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Source Sci-Tech Today
By: Kevin Carr
Visual analytics, a new technology that graphically illustrates datasets, helps users quickly identify responsive documents for electronic discovery review.
The astounding volume of data produced, shared, and stored by organizations today is accelerating at a greater pace than ever before. Managing this information in the past posed some challenges, but what was once considered "a lot of data" is nothing compared to what is now measured in terabytes (1,000 gigabytes) or even petabytes (1 million gigabytes).
Prior to when most data was created and stored electronically, business professionals would create a document, use it for its intended purpose, and then periodically make decisions about whether or not to file the information. Organizations archived only that which they deemed truly important because they had neither the time nor the money to engage in elaborate document storage systems.
With the adoption of and increased reliance on computers, the decision to retain information no longer revolves around manually filing a document; it focuses on actively deleting it. But with the availability of petabytes of computer storage, workers may not feel the need to delete or destroy files. Predictably, organizations have amassed huge volumes of archived materials, saved on hard drives or back-up tape media.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source Sci-Tech Today
By: Kevin Carr
SEC and Finra differ from states on personal data encryption
Fragmented regulations worry some market participants
National and state securities regulators disagree over the use of encryption in storing and communicating client information.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. and the Securities and Exchange Commission oppose some types of encryption out of fear that it will make compliance enforcement difficult.
By contrast, three states — Connecticut, Massachusetts and Nevada — have stringent requirements that regulate the security of personal information that is stored electronically or e-mailed.
The Connecticut and Nevada laws went into effect Oct. 1, with the Massachusetts law slated to kick in next year.
However, the idea that each state could require encryption, creating a fragmented regulatory structure, does not sit well with everyone.
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Source: investmentnews.com
By: Davis D. Janowski
National and state securities regulators disagree over the use of encryption in storing and communicating client information.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. and the Securities and Exchange Commission oppose some types of encryption out of fear that it will make compliance enforcement difficult.
By contrast, three states — Connecticut, Massachusetts and Nevada — have stringent requirements that regulate the security of personal information that is stored electronically or e-mailed.
The Connecticut and Nevada laws went into effect Oct. 1, with the Massachusetts law slated to kick in next year.
However, the idea that each state could require encryption, creating a fragmented regulatory structure, does not sit well with everyone.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: investmentnews.com
By: Davis D. Janowski
E-Discovery Staff: Firm or Corporate?
In today's hyperventilating e-discovery environment, corporations and law firms are competing for the best candidates. Both venues carry advantages and disadvantages to be carefully considered to get the best fit for both the employee and employer.
As a candidate, what are some of the issues you might face? Let's start with a few definitions. For purposes of this discussion, we are referring to large law firms and even larger corporations. Corporations that bear litigation loads heavy enough to warrant permanent EDD staff are often large, high-profile and publicly traded.
Law firms are partnerships, where bottom-line profitability and client service are key. Employees know that if an action is good for the client and good for the bottom line, it's approved. If it is only good for one of the two, the idea still has relatively favorable odds -- if properly presented. This clarity helps professionals design projects and make operational decisions with confidence.
By contrast, large corporations have complex and not necessarily transparent cost-accounting structures that can muddle the motivations of those who approve budget and project proposals. A project approval not only must show a positive return on investment, the ROI must be greater than the "hurdle rate" -- the return the company could receive if it were to allocate the funds to another project. ROI is indeed considered by law firm finance departments, but the benchmark is applied less stringently than in large corporations with smaller profit margins and complex investment strategies. A project not only must be profitable, it must compete against all other possible projects and investments across the organization.
Cost accounting becomes complex in a corporation when shared expenses (such as legal technology) span reporting periods, products and companies. Litigation expenses are relatively minor decision points as accounting structures are initially formed; companies tend to focus instead upon products, revenues and profits.
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Source: law.com
By: Deena Coffman
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