Corporate culture often rebels against interdisciplinary teams formed from the IT and General Counsel's Office (GCO). Stereotypes rule: the GCO thinks that IT is a bunch of geeks who open their mouths and babble some language other than English. To IT's mind, the GCO is a bunch of technology dinosaurs whose egos won't fit through the door.
Neither image is true but when did that ever stop a stereotype? Meanwhile, interdisciplinary teams stay a pipe dream for way too many corporations, And as Scott Whitney of Mimosa Systems noted to me, very real cost savings go begging.
Let's look at what working together can actually accomplish in terms of lowering risk and gaining cold, hard cash savings.
The further left you move on the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) - i.e., to collection, identification and preservation - the more that GCO needs IT's help. Traditionally, GCO hasn't much cared about this, but it's this stage that is proving so costly in modern eDiscovery wars.
True ECA happens on the left-hand side of the EDRM. Early Case Assessment (ECA) needs the ability to search through relevant information early and fast. GCO needs IT to prepare potential data ahead of time, so that said data is ready and waiting in indexes and catalogs.
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Source: networkcomputing.com
By: Christine Taylor
Friday, October 30, 2009
Ariz. Supreme Court Sees the Metadata
Daniel Barr, a partner in Perkins Coie Brown & Bain's Phoenix office, was sitting in a dentist chair during an appointment last year when he read an e-mail update on his BlackBerry about an obscure public records case. The issue: Should metadata, the information that reveals the history of a document, be considered a public record like most other government documents?
A state appeals court in Arizona said no earlier this year in denying a police officer access to performance reviews written by his superiors, but the state Supreme Court reversed the decision Thursday in what is believed to be the first metadata ruling from a state's highest court, the Associated Press reports. The officer at the center of the case suspected his superiors had backdated the negative reviews so it would appear that they were written before his demotion. Such data is not included in the final performance review. To find out who accessed the document when, the officer needed to see the metadata.
Barr, who has extensive experience in media law, read about the ruling on his BlackBerry and knew immediately the case had importance far beyond the individual officer, and that the state Supreme Court should hear it. He called several of his regular media clients only to find few interested in pursuing the case as an amicus party; some had never heard of metadata, and some simply didn't have the money to pay legal fees, he says.
Eventually, three press organizations signed on as amicus parties under Barr's representation: The First Amendment Coalition of Arizona, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Arizona Newspapers Association. Three more retained Steptoe & Johnson partner David Bodney to file their own amicus brief.
The state Supreme Court accepted the case, much to the surprise of Caroline Pilch of Yen Pilch Komadina & Fleming, the employment attorney who had been representing the officer all along. "We never envisioned this case going all the way to the Supreme Court," Pilch says. "It started out as a narrow little case."
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Source: law.com
By: Zach Lowe
A state appeals court in Arizona said no earlier this year in denying a police officer access to performance reviews written by his superiors, but the state Supreme Court reversed the decision Thursday in what is believed to be the first metadata ruling from a state's highest court, the Associated Press reports. The officer at the center of the case suspected his superiors had backdated the negative reviews so it would appear that they were written before his demotion. Such data is not included in the final performance review. To find out who accessed the document when, the officer needed to see the metadata.
Barr, who has extensive experience in media law, read about the ruling on his BlackBerry and knew immediately the case had importance far beyond the individual officer, and that the state Supreme Court should hear it. He called several of his regular media clients only to find few interested in pursuing the case as an amicus party; some had never heard of metadata, and some simply didn't have the money to pay legal fees, he says.
Eventually, three press organizations signed on as amicus parties under Barr's representation: The First Amendment Coalition of Arizona, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Arizona Newspapers Association. Three more retained Steptoe & Johnson partner David Bodney to file their own amicus brief.
The state Supreme Court accepted the case, much to the surprise of Caroline Pilch of Yen Pilch Komadina & Fleming, the employment attorney who had been representing the officer all along. "We never envisioned this case going all the way to the Supreme Court," Pilch says. "It started out as a narrow little case."
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Zach Lowe
Kansas Case Casts Doubt Rule 502
Just when you thought it was safe to enter into "quick peek" and "clawback" agreements, along comes Spieker v. Quest Cherokee, LLC. The decision's comments concerning the application of recently enacted Federal Rule of Evidence 502 seem entirely at odds with the purpose and history behind the adoption of Rule 502. One can only hope other courts adopt a more limited reading of Spieker, No. 07-1225-EFM, 2009 WL 2168892 (D. Kan. July 21, 2009).
A major goal of the 2006 amendments to Rules 16 and 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and new Federal Rule of Evidence 502 was to reduce the cost of electronic discovery by minimizing pre-production privilege review of electronically stored information through the endorsement of "quick peek"[FOOTNOTE 1] and "clawback"[FOOTNOTE 2] agreements in those cases where the parties jointly agreed to such procedures.
However, Spieker demonstrates that not all courts will interpret these provisions in light of the stated goals of the new rules, raising the risk that courts will decline to approve orders including "quick peek" and "clawback" agreements unless the parties can first establish they have undertaken a reasonable pre-production privilege review.
Spieker was a dispute over oil and gas royalties allegedly owed by Quest Cherokee LLC -- the defendant lessee -- to Spieker and others -- the plaintiff lessors -- and allegedly to other similarly situated lessors throughout Kansas' Cherokee Basin region. In pressing their claims, plaintiffs sought to certify the case as a class action under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(a) and requested discovery of documents and ESI to bolster the claims
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Source: law.com
By: H. Christopher Boehning and Daniel J. Toal
A major goal of the 2006 amendments to Rules 16 and 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and new Federal Rule of Evidence 502 was to reduce the cost of electronic discovery by minimizing pre-production privilege review of electronically stored information through the endorsement of "quick peek"[FOOTNOTE 1] and "clawback"[FOOTNOTE 2] agreements in those cases where the parties jointly agreed to such procedures.
However, Spieker demonstrates that not all courts will interpret these provisions in light of the stated goals of the new rules, raising the risk that courts will decline to approve orders including "quick peek" and "clawback" agreements unless the parties can first establish they have undertaken a reasonable pre-production privilege review.
Spieker was a dispute over oil and gas royalties allegedly owed by Quest Cherokee LLC -- the defendant lessee -- to Spieker and others -- the plaintiff lessors -- and allegedly to other similarly situated lessors throughout Kansas' Cherokee Basin region. In pressing their claims, plaintiffs sought to certify the case as a class action under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(a) and requested discovery of documents and ESI to bolster the claims
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: H. Christopher Boehning and Daniel J. Toal
The Rural Payments Agency experiences major data loss as DEFRA denies whistleblower claims
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has reportedly lost confidential data belonging to anyone who has ever claimed a single farm payment.
According to a report by Farmers Weekly, the bank accounts of every farmer in England have been at risk after the data was lost in May. The department for environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA) was alerted to the issue immediately and said the risk posed to farmers was very low.
However Farmers Weekly claimed that the agency only discovered the problem in September. It also said that at no time has the agency or DEFRA attempted to inform farmers about the breach.
Whistleblowers claimed that 39 backup tapes containing confidential details went missing after they were transferred from RPA offices in Reading to Newcastle. DEFRA has admitted that tapes went missing, but told Farmers Weekly that the data was not lost in transit and was instead misplaced within the data centre.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: scmagazineuk.com
By: Dan Raywood
According to a report by Farmers Weekly, the bank accounts of every farmer in England have been at risk after the data was lost in May. The department for environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA) was alerted to the issue immediately and said the risk posed to farmers was very low.
However Farmers Weekly claimed that the agency only discovered the problem in September. It also said that at no time has the agency or DEFRA attempted to inform farmers about the breach.
Whistleblowers claimed that 39 backup tapes containing confidential details went missing after they were transferred from RPA offices in Reading to Newcastle. DEFRA has admitted that tapes went missing, but told Farmers Weekly that the data was not lost in transit and was instead misplaced within the data centre.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: scmagazineuk.com
By: Dan Raywood
Women in eDiscovery Elects New Board Members and Reports Continued Growth
Women in eDiscovery, a non-profit organization that brings together businesswomen interested in technology related to the legal industry, announced today the names of new chapter directors and that it is proudly approaching the 4,000 member mark. The organization held its first meeting with 30 women in attendance in 2007. In a short period of time, Women in eDiscovery has achieved global reach and nearly 4,000 members. The organization provides members with opportunities to help each other grow personally and professionally through leadership, education, networking support, and national recognition.
Women in eDiscovery has 28 chapters across three countries. The organization’s members comprise women from all walks of life, including general counsel, secretaries, law firm partners, associates, chief operating officers, paralegals, litigation support and e-discovery professionals. Many chapters held board elections in October, giving the organization fresh energy into the 2009/2010 term.
National co-founders include Margaret Havinga from a District of Columbia law firm, Shawnna Childress from LECG, and Lana Schell of Clearwell Systems.
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Source: prlog.org
Women in eDiscovery has 28 chapters across three countries. The organization’s members comprise women from all walks of life, including general counsel, secretaries, law firm partners, associates, chief operating officers, paralegals, litigation support and e-discovery professionals. Many chapters held board elections in October, giving the organization fresh energy into the 2009/2010 term.
National co-founders include Margaret Havinga from a District of Columbia law firm, Shawnna Childress from LECG, and Lana Schell of Clearwell Systems.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: prlog.org
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Court Imposes Strict Sanctions for Loss of Video Resulting from City's Reckless Failure to Ensure Preservation
Peschel v. City of Missoula, 2009 WL 3364460 (D. Mont. Oct. 15, 2009)
In this case arising from defendant’s claims that he was wrongfully arrested and that the officers used excessive force, among other things, defendant sought sanctions for the city’s failure to preserve the video of the arrest that was recorded by a camera in one of the officer’s cars. Finding that the video was lost as a result of the city’s recklessness, the court granted defendant’s motion for sanctions and “designat[ed], for purposes of the case, that the arresting officers used unreasonable force to effect the arrest of [defendant].”
Defendant (a doctor) was arrested in April 2007 for the misdemeanor offense of obstructing a peace officer following his refusal to move away from the car of a person threatening to commit suicide. The arrest was recorded by a camera in the car of one of the responding officers. The video was eventually uploaded to the hard drive of a police department computer and viewed by several officers. At “some point” however, the video (along with numerous others) was “lost” and could not be retrieved.
The city explained that the video was lost accidentally as the result of “glitches in its newly installed digital video system.” Additionally, as the court noted, “the department failed to have any type of back-up system in place to ensure the preservation of the video recordings.”
Addressing the motion for sanctions, the court first laid out the controlling law, including the five factors identified by the Ninth Circuit to be considered when imposing dispositive sanctions:
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: ediscoverylaw.com
In this case arising from defendant’s claims that he was wrongfully arrested and that the officers used excessive force, among other things, defendant sought sanctions for the city’s failure to preserve the video of the arrest that was recorded by a camera in one of the officer’s cars. Finding that the video was lost as a result of the city’s recklessness, the court granted defendant’s motion for sanctions and “designat[ed], for purposes of the case, that the arresting officers used unreasonable force to effect the arrest of [defendant].”
Defendant (a doctor) was arrested in April 2007 for the misdemeanor offense of obstructing a peace officer following his refusal to move away from the car of a person threatening to commit suicide. The arrest was recorded by a camera in the car of one of the responding officers. The video was eventually uploaded to the hard drive of a police department computer and viewed by several officers. At “some point” however, the video (along with numerous others) was “lost” and could not be retrieved.
The city explained that the video was lost accidentally as the result of “glitches in its newly installed digital video system.” Additionally, as the court noted, “the department failed to have any type of back-up system in place to ensure the preservation of the video recordings.”
Addressing the motion for sanctions, the court first laid out the controlling law, including the five factors identified by the Ninth Circuit to be considered when imposing dispositive sanctions:
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: ediscoverylaw.com
Simplifying Email Archiving
SharePoint could be called the darling of Microsoft right now. It is the company's fastest growing server product of all time: cumulative sales broke the $1 billion mark in 2008 and more than 100 million licenses have been sold. With its collaboration and content management abilities, SharePoint is likely to remain a top seller for some time to come ȃ analysts are predicting annual growth of 25 percent per year for the next four years.
SharePoint also tends to be heavily integrated with email messaging systems to encompass all modes of information collaboration within the enterprise, so it's not surprising that the email archiving vendors are racing to service this blossoming new market. One of the first out the gate was Mimosa Systems of Santa Clara, Calif. The company recently added SharePoint capabilities to its NearPoint product suite.
"The astronomic success of SharePoint clearly establishes it as one of the leading business applications of 2009," said T.M. Ravi, CEO of Mimosa Systems.
Mimosa NearPoint is an email, file system and SharePoint archiving platform. It combines archiving and recovery into one unified solution that can encompass eDiscovery, content monitoring, archive retention and classification, Personal Storable Table (PST) management, tiered storage management and disaster recovery. NearPoint for Exchange, SharePoint and File System Archiving (FSA) are available within an integrated suite or as stand-alone products.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Enterprise IT Planet
By: Drew Robb
SharePoint also tends to be heavily integrated with email messaging systems to encompass all modes of information collaboration within the enterprise, so it's not surprising that the email archiving vendors are racing to service this blossoming new market. One of the first out the gate was Mimosa Systems of Santa Clara, Calif. The company recently added SharePoint capabilities to its NearPoint product suite.
"The astronomic success of SharePoint clearly establishes it as one of the leading business applications of 2009," said T.M. Ravi, CEO of Mimosa Systems.
Mimosa NearPoint is an email, file system and SharePoint archiving platform. It combines archiving and recovery into one unified solution that can encompass eDiscovery, content monitoring, archive retention and classification, Personal Storable Table (PST) management, tiered storage management and disaster recovery. NearPoint for Exchange, SharePoint and File System Archiving (FSA) are available within an integrated suite or as stand-alone products.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Enterprise IT Planet
By: Drew Robb
RPA lost farmers’ personal data, Benn admits
THE Rural Payments Agency has lost CDs and tapes containing farmers’ personal data, including bank details, Defra Secretary Hilary Benn has admitted.
Mr Benn told the House of Commons today (Thursday, October 29), that routine inventory checks earlier this year revealed that 38 RPA data backup tapes and one CD were unaccounted for. While 35 have since been found, three remain unaccounted for.
Of those, one tape and a CD did not contain personal protected data, but the two remaining tapes ‘potentially contained partial data in code’, Mr Benn admitted.
“Tapes of this sort can only be read with specialist equipment and detailed technical knowledge. Furthermore, one of the two tapes was known to be faulty and had been reported as such since it could not be read,” he said.
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Source: farmersguardian.com
By Alistair Driver
Mr Benn told the House of Commons today (Thursday, October 29), that routine inventory checks earlier this year revealed that 38 RPA data backup tapes and one CD were unaccounted for. While 35 have since been found, three remain unaccounted for.
Of those, one tape and a CD did not contain personal protected data, but the two remaining tapes ‘potentially contained partial data in code’, Mr Benn admitted.
“Tapes of this sort can only be read with specialist equipment and detailed technical knowledge. Furthermore, one of the two tapes was known to be faulty and had been reported as such since it could not be read,” he said.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: farmersguardian.com
By Alistair Driver
Former Toyota Attorney Complains the Automaker Hounded Him
A former in-house lawyer for Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. has filed court papers defending his claims that the automaker engaged in an illegal racketeering conspiracy to destroy and hide electronic discovery in rollover cases.
"Plaintiffs have been forced out of business, sued, harassed, defrauded, threatened, intimidated, left unemployed, rendered unemployable, defamed, and publicly ridiculed by Defendants because Plaintiff Dimitrios Biller, Toyota's former managing counsel, uncovered evidence of Defendants' wrongdoing and tried to correct it," Biller argued in court papers filed on Monday.
"As an attorney, Biller was compelled to cease the practice of law, his profession, directly as a result of Defendants' acts of racketeering," he said. Biller, who was national managing counsel in the legal services group in charge of Toyota's rollover crash litigation between 2003 until his resignation in 2007, filed suit on July 24 against Toyota Motor Sales, its parent corporation, Toyota Motor Corp., and several in-house attorneys, claiming that Toyota hid or destroyed evidence that he felt he was "ethically and legally obligated to turn over."
The suit, which also asserts wrongful termination, threatens to reopen personal injury suits brought against Toyota on behalf of victims of rollover accidents.
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Source: Law.com
By Amanda Bronstad
Sedona Continues Call for Cooperation
It turns out that Jean-Paul Sartre's famous pronouncement that "hell is other people" was overly broad. Other people per se are not the problem, but rather other lawyers -- and uncooperative ones at that. A federal judge in the late 1980s confirmed as much, as a recent e-discovery opinion reminds us: "If there is a hell to which disputatious, uncivil, vituperative lawyers go, let it be one in which the damned are eternally locked in discovery disputes with other lawyers of equally repugnant attributes."[FOOTNOTE 1]
If hell is the last stop for attorneys who are "eternally locked in discovery disputes," then The Sedona Conference -- a nonprofit research and educational institute -- wants to be the guardian angel that keeps counsel cooperative and away from that realm. Working Group 1 of The Sedona Conference consists of judges, attorneys and other experts who meet, discuss and publish on issues relating to electronic discovery. Federal judges are now referring with increasing regularity to the e-discovery guidelines set forth in various publications of The Sedona Conference, including the recently issued The Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation. See The Sedona Conference, The Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation (July 2008).
The Cooperation Proclamation asks a timeless question: Can't we all just get along? Although this pronouncement by The Sedona Conference is only a few pages long, its drafters seek no less than a "paradigm shift for the discovery process."[FOOTNOTE 2] Specifically, the Cooperation Proclamation encourages "a national drive to promote open and forthright information sharing, dialogue (internal and external), training and the development of practical tools to facilitate cooperative, collaborative, transparent discovery."[FOOTNOTE 3] On the theory that overzealous discovery costs too much and yields too little, the Cooperation Proclamation aims to curb the knee-jerk and often counterproductive aggression sometimes exhibited by counsel in discovery. In this respect, its goal is the same as that of Rule 1 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: to promote the "just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action."[FOOTNOTE 4]
Anticipating critics who might dismiss the proposal as "utopian," the Cooperation Proclamation makes a series of practical recommendations for fostering a cooperative culture in discovery. For example, it proposes "[u]tilizing internal ESI discovery 'point persons' to assist counsel in preparing requests and responses," as well as the development of "case-long discovery budgets" that are predicated on principles of proportionality.[FOOTNOTE 5]
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Law.com
By Jennifer H. Rearden and Farrah Pepper
If hell is the last stop for attorneys who are "eternally locked in discovery disputes," then The Sedona Conference -- a nonprofit research and educational institute -- wants to be the guardian angel that keeps counsel cooperative and away from that realm. Working Group 1 of The Sedona Conference consists of judges, attorneys and other experts who meet, discuss and publish on issues relating to electronic discovery. Federal judges are now referring with increasing regularity to the e-discovery guidelines set forth in various publications of The Sedona Conference, including the recently issued The Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation. See The Sedona Conference, The Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation (July 2008).
The Cooperation Proclamation asks a timeless question: Can't we all just get along? Although this pronouncement by The Sedona Conference is only a few pages long, its drafters seek no less than a "paradigm shift for the discovery process."[FOOTNOTE 2] Specifically, the Cooperation Proclamation encourages "a national drive to promote open and forthright information sharing, dialogue (internal and external), training and the development of practical tools to facilitate cooperative, collaborative, transparent discovery."[FOOTNOTE 3] On the theory that overzealous discovery costs too much and yields too little, the Cooperation Proclamation aims to curb the knee-jerk and often counterproductive aggression sometimes exhibited by counsel in discovery. In this respect, its goal is the same as that of Rule 1 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: to promote the "just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action."[FOOTNOTE 4]
Anticipating critics who might dismiss the proposal as "utopian," the Cooperation Proclamation makes a series of practical recommendations for fostering a cooperative culture in discovery. For example, it proposes "[u]tilizing internal ESI discovery 'point persons' to assist counsel in preparing requests and responses," as well as the development of "case-long discovery budgets" that are predicated on principles of proportionality.[FOOTNOTE 5]
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Law.com
By Jennifer H. Rearden and Farrah Pepper
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Windows 7 Forensics
Windows 7 was released this past week. A lot of work by the SANS community has been accomplished at uncovering digital forensic artifacts from it. First off, Windows 7 is really Windows VISTA release 2. Many of the features that are found in Windows Vista will be found in Windows 7.
First of all, all the SANS Digital Forensic Courses have already included up-to-date material fully covering Windows 7 and Vista unlike anyone has done before. In fact, our challenge for SEC408, Computer Forensic Essentials is strictly based off of a Windows Vista case. We have details in SEC408, Computer Forensic Essentials, that are not as covered in peer courses.
Here is just a few things we have helped document regarding Windows 7.
User Profiles:
With the release of Vista/Win7, Microsoft significantly changed the folder structure and mechanisms used by the operating system for user profiles. One of these changes was to make roaming profiles more explicit. Roaming profiles allow users to log onto other systems in the domain and have their profile information follow them. They have been around for many years, and in Vista/Win7, Microsoft decided to make what follows a user, and what doesn’t follow a user much more explicit. Hence within a user profile in Vista/Win7, there are now two different set of folders: Roaming and Local. For our purposes, we want to be able to determine where our browser artifacts will be located in this new file structure. Traditionally Microsoft has included cookies in a roaming profile and excluded cache and history files by default. Thus, cookies are now found under the Roaming folder and history and cache can be found within the Local folder.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: blogs.sans.org
By: Rob Lee
First of all, all the SANS Digital Forensic Courses have already included up-to-date material fully covering Windows 7 and Vista unlike anyone has done before. In fact, our challenge for SEC408, Computer Forensic Essentials is strictly based off of a Windows Vista case. We have details in SEC408, Computer Forensic Essentials, that are not as covered in peer courses.
Here is just a few things we have helped document regarding Windows 7.
User Profiles:
With the release of Vista/Win7, Microsoft significantly changed the folder structure and mechanisms used by the operating system for user profiles. One of these changes was to make roaming profiles more explicit. Roaming profiles allow users to log onto other systems in the domain and have their profile information follow them. They have been around for many years, and in Vista/Win7, Microsoft decided to make what follows a user, and what doesn’t follow a user much more explicit. Hence within a user profile in Vista/Win7, there are now two different set of folders: Roaming and Local. For our purposes, we want to be able to determine where our browser artifacts will be located in this new file structure. Traditionally Microsoft has included cookies in a roaming profile and excluded cache and history files by default. Thus, cookies are now found under the Roaming folder and history and cache can be found within the Local folder.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: blogs.sans.org
By: Rob Lee
Don't Get Caught In The Data Rip Tide When Litigation Comes
Well, it is great to join my colleagues David West and Dipesh Patel in the ranks of CommVault bloggers. I've been ruminating over this inaugural post for the past two months while I've been presenting at our nationwide Innovate8 information and data management road show. I've engaged in so many great conversations with customers and prospects about information governance, risk, compliance and eDiscovery, and am excited to use this blog as a way to share the top-of-minds issues with you here.
A bit of background on me. I'm an English guy living in the New Jersey area, on the doorstep of the city with the biggest financial meltdown in recent history. I get asked a lot why I moved to the US. The answer is I was promised me great weather, good food and less tax. Whilst the weather is, of course, a nice contrast to the rain in the UK, the size of food portions is overwhelming, and tax – well who knows what's going to happen there. What's ended up being even more cool about living over the river from the Big Apple is that you can see firsthand how the climate around data retention and business information access has changed.
The aim of my blog is to address and comment on the real world information challenges or organizations today bridging the gap between IT and legal teams. I've got lawyers, IT professionals, compliance experts and some technical propeller heads all at hand to comment on these issues. You remember that old game called "Simon says". Well I'm not saying you're going to agree with everything we say but let's get the debate going.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: datastorageconnection.com
By: Simon Taylor
A bit of background on me. I'm an English guy living in the New Jersey area, on the doorstep of the city with the biggest financial meltdown in recent history. I get asked a lot why I moved to the US. The answer is I was promised me great weather, good food and less tax. Whilst the weather is, of course, a nice contrast to the rain in the UK, the size of food portions is overwhelming, and tax – well who knows what's going to happen there. What's ended up being even more cool about living over the river from the Big Apple is that you can see firsthand how the climate around data retention and business information access has changed.
The aim of my blog is to address and comment on the real world information challenges or organizations today bridging the gap between IT and legal teams. I've got lawyers, IT professionals, compliance experts and some technical propeller heads all at hand to comment on these issues. You remember that old game called "Simon says". Well I'm not saying you're going to agree with everything we say but let's get the debate going.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: datastorageconnection.com
By: Simon Taylor
E-discovery in a challenging economy
Recent surveys confirm casual observation that lawsuits are a large and growing part of the U.S. economy. A variety of surveys indicate that anywhere from half to nearly 90 percent of businesses, depending on the size and field, were faced with at least one in the past year. Yet many organizations remain completely unprepared.
It’s not easy to get everything right for e-discovery, especially in a tumultuous economy, but it’s not impossible either. Take the case of a natural gas and electric utility company based in the Southeast. It serves more than a million customers in about 100 different counties. Since it is in a highly regulated and frequently litigated industry, the company decided to take the approach of being prepared. After speaking to some leading analysts, the company focused on ZyIMAGE eDiscovery from ZyLAB as the best match in terms of capability and cost.
The company began deployment in spring 2009, and by fall it was operational. Aside from taking the positive step of seeking expert advice, the company also did not wait until an issue was pressing. The deployment of an e-discovery solution was part of a strategic plan to be able to respond in a timely fashion to those issues that might arise. Utilities are subject to many regulations, including financial and environmental, and the company took a realistic approach in getting a solution in place. With e-discovery technology available in-house, the company would be ready to respond.
Complex search requirements are a hallmark of e-discovery, and non-specialized search tools such as Web search engines cannot do the job, according to Johannes Scholtes, CEO of ZyLAB. "The ability to carry out fuzzy searches, wildcard searches and hierarchical searches with nested terms is generally beyond such products," Scholtes says. "In addition, they are not fast enough to deal with the huge volumes of files associated with e-discovery."
ZyINDEX indexes attachments, e-mails and documents in hundreds of formats as well as in many languages. "Technology we have developed over the last two decades provides a very robust solution for these searches," Scholtes adds.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: kmworld.com
By: Judith Lamont, Ph.D.
It’s not easy to get everything right for e-discovery, especially in a tumultuous economy, but it’s not impossible either. Take the case of a natural gas and electric utility company based in the Southeast. It serves more than a million customers in about 100 different counties. Since it is in a highly regulated and frequently litigated industry, the company decided to take the approach of being prepared. After speaking to some leading analysts, the company focused on ZyIMAGE eDiscovery from ZyLAB as the best match in terms of capability and cost.
The company began deployment in spring 2009, and by fall it was operational. Aside from taking the positive step of seeking expert advice, the company also did not wait until an issue was pressing. The deployment of an e-discovery solution was part of a strategic plan to be able to respond in a timely fashion to those issues that might arise. Utilities are subject to many regulations, including financial and environmental, and the company took a realistic approach in getting a solution in place. With e-discovery technology available in-house, the company would be ready to respond.
Complex search requirements are a hallmark of e-discovery, and non-specialized search tools such as Web search engines cannot do the job, according to Johannes Scholtes, CEO of ZyLAB. "The ability to carry out fuzzy searches, wildcard searches and hierarchical searches with nested terms is generally beyond such products," Scholtes says. "In addition, they are not fast enough to deal with the huge volumes of files associated with e-discovery."
ZyINDEX indexes attachments, e-mails and documents in hundreds of formats as well as in many languages. "Technology we have developed over the last two decades provides a very robust solution for these searches," Scholtes adds.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: kmworld.com
By: Judith Lamont, Ph.D.
Pitfalls of Cross-Border Investigations
Companies with large overseas footprints grapple with rules and laws in multiple jurisdictions
Against the backdrop of the recent banking and financial markets crisis, enforcement agencies around the world are increasingly collaborating to investigate allegations of accounting and financial fraud, insider trading, Ponzi schemes, bribery of foreign government officials, other securities law violations, tax evasion, money laundering and antitrust violations. Accordingly, multinational and domestic companies with substantial overseas footprints are conducting more multijurisdictional and cross-border internal investigations in an effort to respond to the enforcement agencies' investigations.
These multijurisdictional and cross-border investigations tend to multiply the magnitude of complex investigatory issues that a company faces in government investigations by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York State Attorney General or other U.S. federal or state enforcement agencies. Among many others, these issues include data privacy laws or other blocking statutes (e.g., state secret laws), employee-friendly labor laws, attorney-client privilege issues, language and cultural barriers, conflicting information technology platforms, document retention policies and practices that fall short of U.S. standards, and improper application by U.S. government agencies of Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Treaties or Memoranda of Understanding. Counsel conducting internal investigations either for purposes of self-reporting or in response to government-initiated investigations or enforcement actions must pay close attention to these pitfalls.
RULES OF THE ROAD
First, secure the relevant documents. While this may seem an obvious point, securing documents from a joint venture or a fifth-tier subsidiary in China, Russia or Turkey may not be as simple or straightforward as securing documents from a plant in Omaha, Nebraska. In any investigation, a large part of the labor and resources are devoted to collecting information. Whether this consists of rummaging through warehouses, interviewing employees, and/or imaging electronic devices, collecting information is often a daunting task. This is especially true in the context of cross-border investigations, where the ever-present logistical complexities are heightened by different document retention policies, language barriers, technological challenges and variations in legal standards from country to country.
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Source: law.com
By: Claudius O. Sokenu, Jessica L. Medina and Tiffany A. Archer
Against the backdrop of the recent banking and financial markets crisis, enforcement agencies around the world are increasingly collaborating to investigate allegations of accounting and financial fraud, insider trading, Ponzi schemes, bribery of foreign government officials, other securities law violations, tax evasion, money laundering and antitrust violations. Accordingly, multinational and domestic companies with substantial overseas footprints are conducting more multijurisdictional and cross-border internal investigations in an effort to respond to the enforcement agencies' investigations.
These multijurisdictional and cross-border investigations tend to multiply the magnitude of complex investigatory issues that a company faces in government investigations by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York State Attorney General or other U.S. federal or state enforcement agencies. Among many others, these issues include data privacy laws or other blocking statutes (e.g., state secret laws), employee-friendly labor laws, attorney-client privilege issues, language and cultural barriers, conflicting information technology platforms, document retention policies and practices that fall short of U.S. standards, and improper application by U.S. government agencies of Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Treaties or Memoranda of Understanding. Counsel conducting internal investigations either for purposes of self-reporting or in response to government-initiated investigations or enforcement actions must pay close attention to these pitfalls.
RULES OF THE ROAD
First, secure the relevant documents. While this may seem an obvious point, securing documents from a joint venture or a fifth-tier subsidiary in China, Russia or Turkey may not be as simple or straightforward as securing documents from a plant in Omaha, Nebraska. In any investigation, a large part of the labor and resources are devoted to collecting information. Whether this consists of rummaging through warehouses, interviewing employees, and/or imaging electronic devices, collecting information is often a daunting task. This is especially true in the context of cross-border investigations, where the ever-present logistical complexities are heightened by different document retention policies, language barriers, technological challenges and variations in legal standards from country to country.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------------
Source: law.com
By: Claudius O. Sokenu, Jessica L. Medina and Tiffany A. Archer
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
US Dem Reps Craft Bill To Prevent Easily Dismissing Lawsuits
Three Democratic lawmakers plan to introduce a bill next week that would override a recent Supreme Court ruling, and make it easier for plaintiffs to get their cases heard in court.
U.S. Representatives John Conyers (D., Mich.), Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.), and Henry Johnson (D., Ga.) are currently working on a bill that would lower the standards for a court case to move to the discovery stage, Nadler said at a hearing on Tuesday. The Supreme Court decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal raised the pleading standard by requiring plaintiffs to have specific factual allegations in order to proceed in court. In May, the court ruled that Javaid Iqbal, a Pakistani national detained in the wake of the September 11 attacks didn't have enough factual evidence to proceed with a case against top government officials.
Reversing the Iqbal opinion could make it far more difficult for companies to dismiss lawsuits before starting the expensive discovery process, when both parties are required to produce documents and other evidence. Lawyers recognized the May ruling's significance immediately. Already attorneys have cited it in 2,700 cases since then, said John Vail, senior counsel at the Center for Constitutional Litigation. But lawmakers said the ruling's effect has been to prevent citizens from having their cases heard.
"The Iqbal decision will effectively slam shut the courthouse door on legitimate plaintiffs based on the judge's take on the plausibility of a claim, rather than on the actual evidence," Nadler said. The bill will be similar to one introduced earlier this year in the Senate by Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Penn.) but will spell out the new standards more specifically.
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Source: online.wsj.com
By: Kristina Peterson
U.S. Representatives John Conyers (D., Mich.), Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.), and Henry Johnson (D., Ga.) are currently working on a bill that would lower the standards for a court case to move to the discovery stage, Nadler said at a hearing on Tuesday. The Supreme Court decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal raised the pleading standard by requiring plaintiffs to have specific factual allegations in order to proceed in court. In May, the court ruled that Javaid Iqbal, a Pakistani national detained in the wake of the September 11 attacks didn't have enough factual evidence to proceed with a case against top government officials.
Reversing the Iqbal opinion could make it far more difficult for companies to dismiss lawsuits before starting the expensive discovery process, when both parties are required to produce documents and other evidence. Lawyers recognized the May ruling's significance immediately. Already attorneys have cited it in 2,700 cases since then, said John Vail, senior counsel at the Center for Constitutional Litigation. But lawmakers said the ruling's effect has been to prevent citizens from having their cases heard.
"The Iqbal decision will effectively slam shut the courthouse door on legitimate plaintiffs based on the judge's take on the plausibility of a claim, rather than on the actual evidence," Nadler said. The bill will be similar to one introduced earlier this year in the Senate by Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Penn.) but will spell out the new standards more specifically.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: online.wsj.com
By: Kristina Peterson
New Ideas for Old Information
Software/service providers are a natural fit for a growing archival headache; for many organizations, the cloud looks like the best answer
We are barely a generation past the day when a stack of ledgers and cabinets of contracts and correspondence best represented the paper trail of a corporate history.
The business information record of today looks much different than it did 20 years ago, but is no less bulky. The fruit of the Information Age is also a creaking attic of accumulation full of diverse records created by more people and systems than ever. From microfiche to punch cards to tape drives to hard disks to solid state, we have counted on technology to outpace our need to retain everything, even as those resources inevitably become strained and call for new solutions.
The largest businesses still manage their own archives, and there is no shortage of archival disk and tape drives in corporate back offices. Yet more organizations are colocating storage in data centers or calling on providers who bring software and private dedicated storage to assume the records chore for overtaxed IT departments. These services are not all equal and don’t always come with significant cost savings. While the trend of lower costs for storage devices may offset some of the growth of information, the human expense of managing archives is not going down.
Now, cloud computing can be added to the list of alternatives to do-it-yourself corporate record libraries. Through software/service vendors and their partnerships, cloud archival services have come to market with lower price points and “limitless” infrastructure, security, backup and analysis performance that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive for small and midsized companies to deliver internally. While this market is immature and evolving, it is marching upstream with a paradigm that is likely to shift the long-term archival landscape once again.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------------
Source: information-management.com
By: Jim Ericson
We are barely a generation past the day when a stack of ledgers and cabinets of contracts and correspondence best represented the paper trail of a corporate history.
The business information record of today looks much different than it did 20 years ago, but is no less bulky. The fruit of the Information Age is also a creaking attic of accumulation full of diverse records created by more people and systems than ever. From microfiche to punch cards to tape drives to hard disks to solid state, we have counted on technology to outpace our need to retain everything, even as those resources inevitably become strained and call for new solutions.
The largest businesses still manage their own archives, and there is no shortage of archival disk and tape drives in corporate back offices. Yet more organizations are colocating storage in data centers or calling on providers who bring software and private dedicated storage to assume the records chore for overtaxed IT departments. These services are not all equal and don’t always come with significant cost savings. While the trend of lower costs for storage devices may offset some of the growth of information, the human expense of managing archives is not going down.
Now, cloud computing can be added to the list of alternatives to do-it-yourself corporate record libraries. Through software/service vendors and their partnerships, cloud archival services have come to market with lower price points and “limitless” infrastructure, security, backup and analysis performance that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive for small and midsized companies to deliver internally. While this market is immature and evolving, it is marching upstream with a paradigm that is likely to shift the long-term archival landscape once again.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: information-management.com
By: Jim Ericson
Brussels to tighten data protection rules
The European Commission will review EU privacy rules in 2010 with the aim of increasing data protection for Internet services such as webmail, social networks and online banking, as well as in other non-virtual sectors ranging from finance to health care.
"Those who profit from the information revolution must respond to the public policy responsibilities that come with it," made clear Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding in a speech given last week at a conference in Brussels dedicated to data protection.
The telecoms package, aimed at reshaping the legal landscape of electronic communications in Europe, already contains new rules to tackle data breaches, an ever-growing phenomenon due to the multiplication of customised services.
"Protection against data breaches cannot be limited to electronic communications networks alone, but may need to be addressed in new EU rules which cover online services as well," Reding said.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: euractiv.com
"Those who profit from the information revolution must respond to the public policy responsibilities that come with it," made clear Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding in a speech given last week at a conference in Brussels dedicated to data protection.
The telecoms package, aimed at reshaping the legal landscape of electronic communications in Europe, already contains new rules to tackle data breaches, an ever-growing phenomenon due to the multiplication of customised services.
"Protection against data breaches cannot be limited to electronic communications networks alone, but may need to be addressed in new EU rules which cover online services as well," Reding said.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: euractiv.com
ACC to GCs: Eliminate Software Costs
In a market where in-house legal teams must control cost, many are seeking to eliminate it completely, at least with respect to their technology budgets. Despite its placement on the last day of the Association of Corporate Counsel's annual conference this month, the "InExpensive/Free Applications for Your Law Department" session captivated an audience of more than 100 people for over an hour.
Mark Donald, associate general counsel of Baltimore-based Vertis Communications, offered attendees a variety of ideas for leveraging open-source technology to streamline operations and eliminate unnecessary expenses.
For example, he encouraged audience members seeking a full-feature, Web-based enterprise document management system to consider the open-source version of KnowledgeTree or the community edition of Alfresco. He similarly recommended that those interested in designing workflow use ProcessMaker and directed audience members to the company’s YouTube channel to see Processmaker in action.
Eager to experiment with ProcessMaker "to interface with the sales effort to prepare contracts," Atlanta-based Polysius Corp. GC Lori Ann Haydu attended this particular session because "I wanted to see how we could do more with less."
That was certainly a theme and Donald provided his peers with options for addressing routine activities with free tools like Open Office, an open-source suite of products for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and other functions, noting that the program provides "baseline Microsoft Office compatibility and supports redlining very well in instances where one may need to quickly review a document on a computer without Microsoft Word." And the creation of PDF documents using open-source Cute PDF Writer intrigued audience members. The discussion of PDF Creator, a program that enables users to create and manipulate PDF documents, generated enthusiastic questions from the audience, although the program is not exactly free (a one-year license costs $29.95).
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Ari Kaplan
Mark Donald, associate general counsel of Baltimore-based Vertis Communications, offered attendees a variety of ideas for leveraging open-source technology to streamline operations and eliminate unnecessary expenses.
For example, he encouraged audience members seeking a full-feature, Web-based enterprise document management system to consider the open-source version of KnowledgeTree or the community edition of Alfresco. He similarly recommended that those interested in designing workflow use ProcessMaker and directed audience members to the company’s YouTube channel to see Processmaker in action.
Eager to experiment with ProcessMaker "to interface with the sales effort to prepare contracts," Atlanta-based Polysius Corp. GC Lori Ann Haydu attended this particular session because "I wanted to see how we could do more with less."
That was certainly a theme and Donald provided his peers with options for addressing routine activities with free tools like Open Office, an open-source suite of products for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and other functions, noting that the program provides "baseline Microsoft Office compatibility and supports redlining very well in instances where one may need to quickly review a document on a computer without Microsoft Word." And the creation of PDF documents using open-source Cute PDF Writer intrigued audience members. The discussion of PDF Creator, a program that enables users to create and manipulate PDF documents, generated enthusiastic questions from the audience, although the program is not exactly free (a one-year license costs $29.95).
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------------
Source: law.com
By: Ari Kaplan
Monday, October 26, 2009
How to Better Protect Business Data Using Continuous Data Protection
Continuous data protection tools fill the data protection gap left by high availability and disaster recovery tools. Continuous data protection automatically captures transaction and object changes that occur between tape saves. Yet all three technologies are vital components in any data protection strategy. By combining continuous data protection, high availability and disaster recovery, Knowledge Center contributor Bill Hammond explains how you can best protect your company’s vital business data.
Organizations often believe they can adequately safeguard their data solely using disaster recovery (DR) tactics such as nightly tape backups combined with high availability (HA) solutions that maintain local or, preferably, remote replicas of production servers. But this is a misconception. HA and DR solutions are necessary but not sufficient components in a complete data protection architecture. Even when used in tandem, HA and DR do not protect against a common vulnerability.
This common vulnerability is the problem of missing recovery points. This problem arises because, for the most part, HA and DR provide only single point-in-time data recovery. In the case of HA, the point in time is the instant before a failure occurs. With tape-based DR solutions, the recovery point is the time the backup tape was created, which is typically sometime during the previous night. Most organizations keep multiple generations of backup tapes. While this allows for multiple recovery points, they are spaced 24 hours apart.
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Source: eweek.com
By: Bill Hammond
Organizations often believe they can adequately safeguard their data solely using disaster recovery (DR) tactics such as nightly tape backups combined with high availability (HA) solutions that maintain local or, preferably, remote replicas of production servers. But this is a misconception. HA and DR solutions are necessary but not sufficient components in a complete data protection architecture. Even when used in tandem, HA and DR do not protect against a common vulnerability.
This common vulnerability is the problem of missing recovery points. This problem arises because, for the most part, HA and DR provide only single point-in-time data recovery. In the case of HA, the point in time is the instant before a failure occurs. With tape-based DR solutions, the recovery point is the time the backup tape was created, which is typically sometime during the previous night. Most organizations keep multiple generations of backup tapes. While this allows for multiple recovery points, they are spaced 24 hours apart.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: eweek.com
By: Bill Hammond
Microsoft opens Outlook format, gives programs access to mail, calendar, contacts
Microsoft Monday said it will provide patent- and license-free use to the format behind its Personal Folders opening e-mail, calendar, contacts and other information to a host of applications such as antimalware or cloud-based services.
Five fantastic open source tools for Windows admins 7 Reasons Not to Use Microsoft Outlook for Company E-mail Documenting and publishing the .pst format could open up entirely new feature sets for programs such as search tools for mining mailboxes for relevant corporate data, new security tools that scan .pst data for malicious software, or e-discovery tools for meeting compliance regulations, according to Microsoft officials.
The written documentation would explain how to parse the contents of the .pst file, which houses the e-mail, calendar and contact contents of Outlook Personal Folders. The documentation will detail how the data is stored, along with guidance for accessing that data from other software applications. The effort is designed to give programs the knowledge to read Outlook data stored on user desktops.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: cio.de
Five fantastic open source tools for Windows admins 7 Reasons Not to Use Microsoft Outlook for Company E-mail Documenting and publishing the .pst format could open up entirely new feature sets for programs such as search tools for mining mailboxes for relevant corporate data, new security tools that scan .pst data for malicious software, or e-discovery tools for meeting compliance regulations, according to Microsoft officials.
The written documentation would explain how to parse the contents of the .pst file, which houses the e-mail, calendar and contact contents of Outlook Personal Folders. The documentation will detail how the data is stored, along with guidance for accessing that data from other software applications. The effort is designed to give programs the knowledge to read Outlook data stored on user desktops.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------------
Source: cio.de
"Hallowee-Mail Horrors": Proofpoint Identifies Top 10 Terrifying Email Blunders of 2009
Recession Fears, Banking Scams, and Healthcare Debate Create Frightening Fiascos
It is no surprise that the biggest email horror stories this year capitalized on consumer and business fears during the height of the recession, according to Proofpoint, Inc., the leading provider of unified email security, archiving and data loss prevention solutions. With Halloween creeping around the corner, Proofpoint has identified some of the scarier email incidents of 2009 that not only haunted individuals, but businesses as well.
These blunders, attacks and mishaps have wreaked havoc on email systems and caused financial stress for consumers, corporate executives, politicians, and, of course, email administrators.
In no particular order, Proofpoint highlights some of this year's email mishaps below:
1.) Trojan Horse Empties Bank Accounts
In September, it was reported that a banking Trojan horse, dubbed URLZone, had thwarted fraud detection systems, to enable software to actually steal money while users are logged in to their accounts and display a fake balance. Victims' computers were infected either by clicking on a malicious link in an email or visiting a Website that has been compromised with hidden malware.
The Trojan also kept a log of the victim's bank account login credentials, took screenshots, and snooped on the user's other Web accounts, such as PayPal, Facebook, and Gmail.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: marketwire.com
It is no surprise that the biggest email horror stories this year capitalized on consumer and business fears during the height of the recession, according to Proofpoint, Inc., the leading provider of unified email security, archiving and data loss prevention solutions. With Halloween creeping around the corner, Proofpoint has identified some of the scarier email incidents of 2009 that not only haunted individuals, but businesses as well.
These blunders, attacks and mishaps have wreaked havoc on email systems and caused financial stress for consumers, corporate executives, politicians, and, of course, email administrators.
In no particular order, Proofpoint highlights some of this year's email mishaps below:
1.) Trojan Horse Empties Bank Accounts
In September, it was reported that a banking Trojan horse, dubbed URLZone, had thwarted fraud detection systems, to enable software to actually steal money while users are logged in to their accounts and display a fake balance. Victims' computers were infected either by clicking on a malicious link in an email or visiting a Website that has been compromised with hidden malware.
The Trojan also kept a log of the victim's bank account login credentials, took screenshots, and snooped on the user's other Web accounts, such as PayPal, Facebook, and Gmail.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: marketwire.com
EMC lays out data archiving and eDiscovery plans
Still revamping its content management and archiving (CMA) division to try to become a leader in eDiscovery, EMC Corp. experienced a decline in sales for that group last quarter and analysts said it is late to market with important features.
EMC is looking for its September acquisition of eDiscovery software vendor Kazeon to give its SourceOne platform a boost. Whitney Tidmarsh, chief marketing officer for EMC's CMA division, said EMC's goal is to put together an eDiscovery suite that can take on Autonomy Corp., but the CMA division has been among the weaker parts of EMC, this past quarter posting a year-over-year revenue decline of 6%.
Analysts said the SourceOne family lags behind competitors in support of content types other then email, such as SharePoint and file shares. Tidmarsh said EMC's roadmap calls for support of those content types next year.
But Wikibon analyst David Vellante said that's well behind the rest of the market. "EMC is really late," he said, pointing out Mimosa Systems and Autonomy have already offered support for SharePoint and files for months.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: searchstorage.techtarget.com
By: Beth Pariseau
EMC is looking for its September acquisition of eDiscovery software vendor Kazeon to give its SourceOne platform a boost. Whitney Tidmarsh, chief marketing officer for EMC's CMA division, said EMC's goal is to put together an eDiscovery suite that can take on Autonomy Corp., but the CMA division has been among the weaker parts of EMC, this past quarter posting a year-over-year revenue decline of 6%.
Analysts said the SourceOne family lags behind competitors in support of content types other then email, such as SharePoint and file shares. Tidmarsh said EMC's roadmap calls for support of those content types next year.
But Wikibon analyst David Vellante said that's well behind the rest of the market. "EMC is really late," he said, pointing out Mimosa Systems and Autonomy have already offered support for SharePoint and files for months.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: searchstorage.techtarget.com
By: Beth Pariseau
Are the iPhone and social networks making the classic Web and intranet obsolete?
There’s been an important and relatively sudden change taking place over the last couple of years in the way that we interact with the Web. While direct access or search activity has been (and still is) the most common way that we access the content and applications of the Web, new ways have been rapidly growing and competing with how we work online, both at home and at work.
Thus these new models, exemplified by social networking sites like Facebook or mobile apps on platforms like the iPhone, Palm’s new webOS, and Android, will ultimately herald a change in the way that we work with our IT systems in the enterprise.
The once relatively unified world of the Internet, with a few major top-level types of access directly connected to it (browser, e-mail, IRC client, newsreader, etc.) and a few key sub-apps such as search that virtually everyone online used have been extended — as well as fragmented — into popular new channels into which users are now rapidly moving en masse.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: blogs.zdnet.com
By: Dion Hinchcliffe
Thus these new models, exemplified by social networking sites like Facebook or mobile apps on platforms like the iPhone, Palm’s new webOS, and Android, will ultimately herald a change in the way that we work with our IT systems in the enterprise.
The once relatively unified world of the Internet, with a few major top-level types of access directly connected to it (browser, e-mail, IRC client, newsreader, etc.) and a few key sub-apps such as search that virtually everyone online used have been extended — as well as fragmented — into popular new channels into which users are now rapidly moving en masse.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: blogs.zdnet.com
By: Dion Hinchcliffe
IT shops rally around private clouds
Going forward, a hybrid public-private approach will likely win.
Private clouds -- where companies use their own infrastructure and provision virtualized services to end users via automated tools -- are gaining traction among IT leaders who want to deliver advanced services at lower cost.
However, as with any new approach to computing, private clouds today fall short on manageability, and some users worry about the risk of vendor lock-in, particularly with virtualization and other tools that make cloud computing possible. Further, the fuzzy nature of just what private cloud computing means could slow the adoption of internal cloud setups.
That lack of definition doesn't bother Geir Ramleth, CIO at San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp. In fact, he says, the lack of a precise definition is a good thing, because looking at the private cloud too narrowly would "limit what it can do for us," he says. "You're talking philosophy here." Bechtel is one of the world's largest engineering and construction firms.
Alan Boehme, senior vice president and head of IT strategy at ING Financial Services in San Francisco, adds that a private cloud differs from old ways of thinking about systems architecture. "It's not just servers, storage or networks; it's every component," he argues.
Meanwhile, Bob Zukis, an IT strategy and operations consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in New York, says, "the private cloud is less about technology than it is a rallying cry for IT."
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Computerworld
By: Mark Everett Hall
Private clouds -- where companies use their own infrastructure and provision virtualized services to end users via automated tools -- are gaining traction among IT leaders who want to deliver advanced services at lower cost.
However, as with any new approach to computing, private clouds today fall short on manageability, and some users worry about the risk of vendor lock-in, particularly with virtualization and other tools that make cloud computing possible. Further, the fuzzy nature of just what private cloud computing means could slow the adoption of internal cloud setups.
That lack of definition doesn't bother Geir Ramleth, CIO at San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp. In fact, he says, the lack of a precise definition is a good thing, because looking at the private cloud too narrowly would "limit what it can do for us," he says. "You're talking philosophy here." Bechtel is one of the world's largest engineering and construction firms.
Alan Boehme, senior vice president and head of IT strategy at ING Financial Services in San Francisco, adds that a private cloud differs from old ways of thinking about systems architecture. "It's not just servers, storage or networks; it's every component," he argues.
Meanwhile, Bob Zukis, an IT strategy and operations consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in New York, says, "the private cloud is less about technology than it is a rallying cry for IT."
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Computerworld
By: Mark Everett Hall
Data masking secures sensitive data in non-production environments
Last week's article covered the topic of protecting data in databases from the inside out. That is, watching every action involving data as it happens, and promptly halting improper actions. This week's article takes look at data masking, which another way to protect sensitive data, especially as it is being copied and used in the development and testing of applications.
Data masking is the process of de-identifying (masking) specific elements within data stores by applying one-way algorithms to the data. The process ensures that sensitive data is replaced with realistic but not real data; for example, scrambling the digits in a Social Security number while preserving the data format. The one-way nature of the algorithm means there is no need to maintain keys to restore the data as you would with encryption or tokenization.
Prediction: DOJ indicates antitrust lawsuit over Google books deal?
10 woeful tales of data gone missing
Data masking is typically done while provisioning non-production environments so that copies of data created to support test and development processes are not exposing sensitive information. If you don't think this is important, consider what happened to Wal-Mart a few years ago. Wired.com reports that Wal-Mart was the victim of a serious security breach in 2005 and 2006 in which hackers targeted the development team in charge of the chain's point-of-sale system and siphoned source code and other sensitive data to a computer in Eastern Europe. Many computers the hackers targeted belonged to company programmers. Wal-Mart at the time produced some of its own software, and one team of programmers was tasked with coding the company's point-of-sale system for processing credit and debit card transactions. This was the team the intruders targeted and successfully hacked.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: thestandard.com
By: Linda Musthaler and Brian Musthaler
Data masking is the process of de-identifying (masking) specific elements within data stores by applying one-way algorithms to the data. The process ensures that sensitive data is replaced with realistic but not real data; for example, scrambling the digits in a Social Security number while preserving the data format. The one-way nature of the algorithm means there is no need to maintain keys to restore the data as you would with encryption or tokenization.
Prediction: DOJ indicates antitrust lawsuit over Google books deal?
10 woeful tales of data gone missing
Data masking is typically done while provisioning non-production environments so that copies of data created to support test and development processes are not exposing sensitive information. If you don't think this is important, consider what happened to Wal-Mart a few years ago. Wired.com reports that Wal-Mart was the victim of a serious security breach in 2005 and 2006 in which hackers targeted the development team in charge of the chain's point-of-sale system and siphoned source code and other sensitive data to a computer in Eastern Europe. Many computers the hackers targeted belonged to company programmers. Wal-Mart at the time produced some of its own software, and one team of programmers was tasked with coding the company's point-of-sale system for processing credit and debit card transactions. This was the team the intruders targeted and successfully hacked.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: thestandard.com
By: Linda Musthaler and Brian Musthaler
Sunday, October 25, 2009
New Digital Forensics Magazine Plans to be a Valuable Resource for Police Forces Around the World
On November 1st this year a new online magazine launches; Digital Forensics Magazine is a valuable resource for digital crime fighting agencies, academics, students and professional forensics practitioners alike. The magazine covers the following topics:
. Cyber terrorism
. Legal aspects from the UK & the Rest of the World
. Management issues
. Investigation technologies and procedures
. Tools and techniques
. Hardware, software and network forensics
. Mobile devices
. Training
. eDiscovery
. Book/product reviews
Tony Campbell, one of the publishers of the magazine, and IT Security expert stated, "We're hoping that police forces around the world will become avid readers of the magazine. It will be full of content that they can learn from, keep up to-date with emerging digital forensics trends and discover new technology that will help them in their roles. And hopefully in future editions, they can contribute to the magazine from a law enforcement perspective."
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: pr.com
. Cyber terrorism
. Legal aspects from the UK & the Rest of the World
. Management issues
. Investigation technologies and procedures
. Tools and techniques
. Hardware, software and network forensics
. Mobile devices
. Training
. eDiscovery
. Book/product reviews
Tony Campbell, one of the publishers of the magazine, and IT Security expert stated, "We're hoping that police forces around the world will become avid readers of the magazine. It will be full of content that they can learn from, keep up to-date with emerging digital forensics trends and discover new technology that will help them in their roles. And hopefully in future editions, they can contribute to the magazine from a law enforcement perspective."
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------------
Source: pr.com
Balance sought on rising cost of gathering electronic evidence
In many legal disputes, the smoking gun is found in e-mail, but the cost to search and retrieve electronic evidence is increasingly more than the lawsuit is worth.
The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver recently held a forum for judges and lawyers about the expense of modern litigation and ways of improving the culture of e-discovery.
At the forum, Denver attorney Gregory Kerwin of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP discussed a corporate lawsuit where obtaining e-mails of 30 people over a two-year period cost $3 million and produced 10 million pages to review. The $3 million did not cover the cost of reviewing the contents of the e-mails.
"I have heard the rule of thumb — that even with inexpensive lawyers — it is $7.50 a page. So you can start to see how it all adds up and why it is becoming a problem," said Rebecca Love Kourlis, executive director of the institute and a former Colorado Supreme Court justice.
If a person sends an average of 50 e-mails a day and if a narrow set of search terms are not established early on in a case, the sheer volume of information to review can become overwhelming, Kerwin said.
"We've had to go offshore to India to evaluate discovery because it's cheaper," he said. "We can't litigate our disputes because of the expense."
Before computers became the way of business, companies kept paper documents in files and many transactions now done through e-mail were conducted over the phone and not recorded.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: denverpost.com
By: Felisa Cardona
The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver recently held a forum for judges and lawyers about the expense of modern litigation and ways of improving the culture of e-discovery.
At the forum, Denver attorney Gregory Kerwin of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP discussed a corporate lawsuit where obtaining e-mails of 30 people over a two-year period cost $3 million and produced 10 million pages to review. The $3 million did not cover the cost of reviewing the contents of the e-mails.
"I have heard the rule of thumb — that even with inexpensive lawyers — it is $7.50 a page. So you can start to see how it all adds up and why it is becoming a problem," said Rebecca Love Kourlis, executive director of the institute and a former Colorado Supreme Court justice.
If a person sends an average of 50 e-mails a day and if a narrow set of search terms are not established early on in a case, the sheer volume of information to review can become overwhelming, Kerwin said.
"We've had to go offshore to India to evaluate discovery because it's cheaper," he said. "We can't litigate our disputes because of the expense."
Before computers became the way of business, companies kept paper documents in files and many transactions now done through e-mail were conducted over the phone and not recorded.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: denverpost.com
By: Felisa Cardona
Technology at the Masters Conference
The Masters Conference buzzed through the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., on October 13 and 14, supporting a rich cast of e-discovery specialists, pundits and exhibitors. Typically, the Masters has a laser focus on e-discovery, but this year the conference expanded its coverage to address risk management and security issues that often accompany litigation matters involving electronically stored information as well as EDD.
Like LegalTech New York 2009, vendors at the Masters Conference seemed to emphasize a general lean towards the "left side" of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model. Exhibitors chatted up their preprocessing tools and new features to help customers better manage the endless streams of digital data.
Several vendors highlighted their system improvements around processing speed. Apparently, customers have been clamoring for more features devoted to relieving bottlenecks in processing so they can reduce the costs for e-discovery and cut the time necessary to complete EDD projects.
Vendors were also anxious to describe how their systems are getting better at identifying file exceptions. In any batch of electronic data set up for processing, there inevitably will be a small percentage of files that are password-protected, compressed or just plain odd or rare. It's becoming more important for systems to accurately report on file exceptions so that appropriate actions can be taken.
In a similar vein, the EDD processing stage requires a system know what file types to exclude from the eventual batch of relevant data (e.g., operating system files, application support files, etc.). Many tools can automatically filter out irrelevant files by using the "NIST-list" from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The NIST-list helps to identify files generated by a computer system from those generated by a user. Some vendors were describing the additional tools their systems provide to exclude irrelevant files over and above those identified by the NIST-list.
CLEARWELL SYSTEMS
Clearwell Systems recently released version 5.0 of their flagship E-Discovery Platform. Version 5.0 places additional focus on the preprocessing stages of e-discovery which expands Clearwell's capabilities beyond the typical review scenario, i.e., moving towards the "left side" of EDRM.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------------
Source: law.com
By: Brett Burney
Like LegalTech New York 2009, vendors at the Masters Conference seemed to emphasize a general lean towards the "left side" of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model. Exhibitors chatted up their preprocessing tools and new features to help customers better manage the endless streams of digital data.
Several vendors highlighted their system improvements around processing speed. Apparently, customers have been clamoring for more features devoted to relieving bottlenecks in processing so they can reduce the costs for e-discovery and cut the time necessary to complete EDD projects.
Vendors were also anxious to describe how their systems are getting better at identifying file exceptions. In any batch of electronic data set up for processing, there inevitably will be a small percentage of files that are password-protected, compressed or just plain odd or rare. It's becoming more important for systems to accurately report on file exceptions so that appropriate actions can be taken.
In a similar vein, the EDD processing stage requires a system know what file types to exclude from the eventual batch of relevant data (e.g., operating system files, application support files, etc.). Many tools can automatically filter out irrelevant files by using the "NIST-list" from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The NIST-list helps to identify files generated by a computer system from those generated by a user. Some vendors were describing the additional tools their systems provide to exclude irrelevant files over and above those identified by the NIST-list.
CLEARWELL SYSTEMS
Clearwell Systems recently released version 5.0 of their flagship E-Discovery Platform. Version 5.0 places additional focus on the preprocessing stages of e-discovery which expands Clearwell's capabilities beyond the typical review scenario, i.e., moving towards the "left side" of EDRM.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------------
Source: law.com
By: Brett Burney
Indiana Supreme Court Rules Trial Court Properly Admitted Evidence of Defendant's MySpace Page in Murder Trial
Clark v. State, 2009 WL 3319674 (Ind. Oct. 15, 2009)
Defendant Ian J. Clark was found guilty of murdering a two year old girl left in his care and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. On appeal, Clark argued that the trial court improperly admitted evidence from his MySpace account in violation of Ind. R. Evid. 404(b). Taking up the “novel question” of the propriety of admitting such evidence, the Supreme Court of Indiana ruled that the trial court did not err in admitting the evidence, particularly where Clark’s own testimony made his character a “central issue” of his defense. The verdict and sentence were therefore affirmed.
On May 25th, 2007, the victim’s mother returned home to find her daughter injured and unconscious; she was later declared dead. Her fiancée, Ian Clark, was arrested and charged with murder. At trial, Clark testified in his own defense, insisting he had acted recklessly rather than intentionally and was therefore guilty of reckless homicide but not murder. During his testimony, the prosecution entered into evidence Clark’s own description of himself, taken from his MySpace page:
Society labels me as an outlaw and criminal and sees more and more everyday how many of the people, while growing up, and those who judge me, are dishonest and dishonorable. Note, in one aspect I'm glad to say I have helped you people in my past who have done something and achieved on the other hand, I'm sad to see so many people who have nowhere. To those people I say, if I can do it and get away. B ... sh.... And with all my obstacles, why the f ... can't you.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: ediscoverylaw.com
Defendant Ian J. Clark was found guilty of murdering a two year old girl left in his care and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. On appeal, Clark argued that the trial court improperly admitted evidence from his MySpace account in violation of Ind. R. Evid. 404(b). Taking up the “novel question” of the propriety of admitting such evidence, the Supreme Court of Indiana ruled that the trial court did not err in admitting the evidence, particularly where Clark’s own testimony made his character a “central issue” of his defense. The verdict and sentence were therefore affirmed.
On May 25th, 2007, the victim’s mother returned home to find her daughter injured and unconscious; she was later declared dead. Her fiancée, Ian Clark, was arrested and charged with murder. At trial, Clark testified in his own defense, insisting he had acted recklessly rather than intentionally and was therefore guilty of reckless homicide but not murder. During his testimony, the prosecution entered into evidence Clark’s own description of himself, taken from his MySpace page:
Society labels me as an outlaw and criminal and sees more and more everyday how many of the people, while growing up, and those who judge me, are dishonest and dishonorable. Note, in one aspect I'm glad to say I have helped you people in my past who have done something and achieved on the other hand, I'm sad to see so many people who have nowhere. To those people I say, if I can do it and get away. B ... sh.... And with all my obstacles, why the f ... can't you.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: ediscoverylaw.com
Friday, October 23, 2009
Following the e-trail
With the integration of the Sedona Canada Principles into the rules governing discovery, courts are becoming more willing to order parties to produce their hard drives and laptops. As email and social networking Web sites continue to replace verbal communication, electronic discovery can unearth significant paper trails.
BACKGROUND
Fundamentally, all records relevant and material to the issues in the pleadings must be disclosed and produced. The provincial rules of court include discovery rules that were drafted with respect to paper documents. In most cases, relevant paper records are often standardized -- income tax returns, for example -- and can be easily identified, retrieved and produced. But information technology has led to fundamental change in the way documents are created, used and stored in both the private and commercial realms. In particular, communications that were traditionally verbal and not recorded are now re- duced to writing. The advent of email, instant messaging and social networking forums such as Facebook have led to the unintentional creation of paper trails that can be particularly relevant in insurance litigation. These communications are often "deleted," but remain stored in a computer's electronic memory. Generally they can only be retrieved by forensic data recovery experts who require access to the entire hard drive.
Traditional discovery rules are not easily applied to electronically stored documents. Prior to 2008, courts tended not to order production of a laptop or a hard drive because the relevance of documents that might be found in the hard drive were outweighed by the negative effect it would have on privacy and confidentiality interests. 1
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: canadianunderwriter.ca
By: Joseph Oppenheim, McLennan Ross LLP
BACKGROUND
Fundamentally, all records relevant and material to the issues in the pleadings must be disclosed and produced. The provincial rules of court include discovery rules that were drafted with respect to paper documents. In most cases, relevant paper records are often standardized -- income tax returns, for example -- and can be easily identified, retrieved and produced. But information technology has led to fundamental change in the way documents are created, used and stored in both the private and commercial realms. In particular, communications that were traditionally verbal and not recorded are now re- duced to writing. The advent of email, instant messaging and social networking forums such as Facebook have led to the unintentional creation of paper trails that can be particularly relevant in insurance litigation. These communications are often "deleted," but remain stored in a computer's electronic memory. Generally they can only be retrieved by forensic data recovery experts who require access to the entire hard drive.
Traditional discovery rules are not easily applied to electronically stored documents. Prior to 2008, courts tended not to order production of a laptop or a hard drive because the relevance of documents that might be found in the hard drive were outweighed by the negative effect it would have on privacy and confidentiality interests. 1
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: canadianunderwriter.ca
By: Joseph Oppenheim, McLennan Ross LLP
Top-level Corporate Communications: Managing Technology Risks
In constantly changing market environments, businesses worldwide need to communicate their strategies and other information in a timely and efficient manner. New technologies allow management to stay connected and communicate whenever they need to – but electronically-transferred information is vulnerable and contains several risks. Therefore, businesses need assurance that sensitive information is secure and will not be disclosed in the public domain. Several options exist for managing communication, and companies are highly advised to consider such methods and take the necessary steps if they want to limit potential threats.
There are numerous security risks when information is being communicated between several parties. There is always the danger that digitised information may be copied, stolen or destroyed when transferred via the internet, email, messaging services, and so on. Also, the use of portable devices, such as mobiles, laptops, blackberries, USBs and MP3s that do not contain any form of protection against hacking and viruses, pose a threat to security.
“Clearly the use of electronic communications networks can give rise to far more opportunities for hacking, and indeed for communications to go astray. But traditional methods can also be exposed,” points out Toby Crick, a partner at Bristows. “Electronic networks are often far more open to review within an organisation than users may realise. Not only do users such as IT departments and PAs often have access to senior managers’ email, but also the actual creation of documents on an IT system can allow others to review them.”
The human risks should not be overlooked either, such as the accidental sending of communications to the wrong people or the loss of technological devices. In addition, if a company does not have a comprehensive system for information management, with enforceable controls, undesirable gaps can open up. “Poor filing practices in general can result in data proliferation or loss of data,” confirms Paul Barton, a partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP. “The greatest risk of this stems from people working from home or while travelling. Companies quite often end up with the same data stored in multiple formats or in multiple places, which can lead not only to confusion but potential security breaches.” People may also simply ignore information security procedures, explains Michael A. Gold, a partner at Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP, but the risk of having an inadequate policy or none at all is more nefarious. “Absent appropriate policies and procedures, no guidance exists for maintaining information security, and security breaches often wind up being punished or remedied on an ad hoc basis, unconnected in any systematic way with the enterprise value of the information.” This has negative consequences for a company and can affect several aspects of its operations.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Financier Worldwide
By: Pauline Renaud
There are numerous security risks when information is being communicated between several parties. There is always the danger that digitised information may be copied, stolen or destroyed when transferred via the internet, email, messaging services, and so on. Also, the use of portable devices, such as mobiles, laptops, blackberries, USBs and MP3s that do not contain any form of protection against hacking and viruses, pose a threat to security.
“Clearly the use of electronic communications networks can give rise to far more opportunities for hacking, and indeed for communications to go astray. But traditional methods can also be exposed,” points out Toby Crick, a partner at Bristows. “Electronic networks are often far more open to review within an organisation than users may realise. Not only do users such as IT departments and PAs often have access to senior managers’ email, but also the actual creation of documents on an IT system can allow others to review them.”
The human risks should not be overlooked either, such as the accidental sending of communications to the wrong people or the loss of technological devices. In addition, if a company does not have a comprehensive system for information management, with enforceable controls, undesirable gaps can open up. “Poor filing practices in general can result in data proliferation or loss of data,” confirms Paul Barton, a partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP. “The greatest risk of this stems from people working from home or while travelling. Companies quite often end up with the same data stored in multiple formats or in multiple places, which can lead not only to confusion but potential security breaches.” People may also simply ignore information security procedures, explains Michael A. Gold, a partner at Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP, but the risk of having an inadequate policy or none at all is more nefarious. “Absent appropriate policies and procedures, no guidance exists for maintaining information security, and security breaches often wind up being punished or remedied on an ad hoc basis, unconnected in any systematic way with the enterprise value of the information.” This has negative consequences for a company and can affect several aspects of its operations.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Financier Worldwide
By: Pauline Renaud
Looking for innovation? Ask your lawyer
Legal departments turn to technology to handle an onslaught of regulatory requests
Have some sympathy for your corporate legal department - it's facing the perfect storm.
Like everyone else this year, the legal department is required to cut its budget, in some cases by 20% or more. But unlike other departments, legal faces a greatly increased workload. It's not so much because of litigation, although there continues to be no shortage of that. Rather, it's because of a regulatory crackdown that goes far beyond the financial services industry.
The increase in regulatory activity has come in three broad areas. First, many of our public company clients are seeing far more regulatory inquiries than in prior years. These cause havoc for legal departments because the information requests are often broad and with very tight deadlines. For example, one of our technology clients recently received a request from the Security and Exchange Commission for “all information pertaining to executive compensation since 1992” - and was given five days to provide it.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: wistechnology.com
By: Aaref Hilaly
Have some sympathy for your corporate legal department - it's facing the perfect storm.
Like everyone else this year, the legal department is required to cut its budget, in some cases by 20% or more. But unlike other departments, legal faces a greatly increased workload. It's not so much because of litigation, although there continues to be no shortage of that. Rather, it's because of a regulatory crackdown that goes far beyond the financial services industry.
The increase in regulatory activity has come in three broad areas. First, many of our public company clients are seeing far more regulatory inquiries than in prior years. These cause havoc for legal departments because the information requests are often broad and with very tight deadlines. For example, one of our technology clients recently received a request from the Security and Exchange Commission for “all information pertaining to executive compensation since 1992” - and was given five days to provide it.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
------------------------------------------
Source: wistechnology.com
By: Aaref Hilaly
Corporate Counsel Discuss Risks of Landing in the Hot Seat
In-house lawyers at the Association of Corporate Counsel's annual meeting in Boston this week conferred on ways to combat the rising number of lawsuits and government investigations faced by their ranks.
Several panels addressed lawsuit topics, including "Traditional and Not-So-Traditional Malpractice Risks of In-house Counsel" on Wednesday and "In-house Counsel as Witnesses" on Monday. Another Wednesday panel, "In-house Ethical Dilemmas Revisited: What Would You Do Now?," discussed how to handle potential ethical quagmires that could generate lawsuits.
In-house counsel are facing suits from many directions, said Kirk Raslowsky, associate general counsel of the Chubb & Son division of Federal Insurance Co. and a panelist in the malpractice risks seminar.
Raslowsky said in-house lawyers are being named as parties in employment suits, corporate waste suits against companies in bankruptcy and trademark cases against the company. Electronic discovery issues are frequently involved.
More often, an in-house lawyers' failure to act will spur a claim more than making errors, he said. "This failure to act may be viewed as a green light by others [to sue]," Raslowsky said.
Raslowsky said the Delaware's bankruptcy court's decision to allow claims against Brian Licastro, World Health Alternatives Inc.'s former general counsel, to move forward in an adversary case, Miller v. McDonald, is a prime example.
The claims against Licastro included breach of fiduciary duty, waste of corporate assets, negligent misrepresentation, professional negligence and related aiding and abetting claims.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Sheri Qualters
Several panels addressed lawsuit topics, including "Traditional and Not-So-Traditional Malpractice Risks of In-house Counsel" on Wednesday and "In-house Counsel as Witnesses" on Monday. Another Wednesday panel, "In-house Ethical Dilemmas Revisited: What Would You Do Now?," discussed how to handle potential ethical quagmires that could generate lawsuits.
In-house counsel are facing suits from many directions, said Kirk Raslowsky, associate general counsel of the Chubb & Son division of Federal Insurance Co. and a panelist in the malpractice risks seminar.
Raslowsky said in-house lawyers are being named as parties in employment suits, corporate waste suits against companies in bankruptcy and trademark cases against the company. Electronic discovery issues are frequently involved.
More often, an in-house lawyers' failure to act will spur a claim more than making errors, he said. "This failure to act may be viewed as a green light by others [to sue]," Raslowsky said.
Raslowsky said the Delaware's bankruptcy court's decision to allow claims against Brian Licastro, World Health Alternatives Inc.'s former general counsel, to move forward in an adversary case, Miller v. McDonald, is a prime example.
The claims against Licastro included breach of fiduciary duty, waste of corporate assets, negligent misrepresentation, professional negligence and related aiding and abetting claims.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
------------------------------------------
Source: law.com
By: Sheri Qualters
Moving To A Digitized Workplace
The Paperless Office & Document Retention Policies
Visions of the paperless office have largely been rendered absurd by historical events, as evidenced by the billions enterprises spend every year on printers, copiers, and supplies. In fact, technology has arguably made it easier than ever to generate paper. However, the days of paper as a primary records storage medium are numbered; hard copy records take up too much space and take too long to search and retrieve. The confluence of multiterabyte storage systems, sophisticated document management software, and digitized workflows means that enterprises are building key business processes around online forms and digital records.
Yet, when transitioning to digital paperless systems, the archival and retention of records are critical policies that are often overlooked. According to Info-Tech Research analyst Rahul Parmar, “The development of a document retention strategy is the first phase of transferring a paper-based system to a digital one.” He notes that given the implications for every facet of a business, the impetus and leadership for document retention policies generally comes from upper management, not IT. “This is a business problem, not a technical one,” says Parmar, adding that IT is responsible for the tools and back-end infrastructure but not the entire project.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: processor.com
By: Kurt Marko
Visions of the paperless office have largely been rendered absurd by historical events, as evidenced by the billions enterprises spend every year on printers, copiers, and supplies. In fact, technology has arguably made it easier than ever to generate paper. However, the days of paper as a primary records storage medium are numbered; hard copy records take up too much space and take too long to search and retrieve. The confluence of multiterabyte storage systems, sophisticated document management software, and digitized workflows means that enterprises are building key business processes around online forms and digital records.
Yet, when transitioning to digital paperless systems, the archival and retention of records are critical policies that are often overlooked. According to Info-Tech Research analyst Rahul Parmar, “The development of a document retention strategy is the first phase of transferring a paper-based system to a digital one.” He notes that given the implications for every facet of a business, the impetus and leadership for document retention policies generally comes from upper management, not IT. “This is a business problem, not a technical one,” says Parmar, adding that IT is responsible for the tools and back-end infrastructure but not the entire project.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: processor.com
By: Kurt Marko
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Legal Implications of Cloud Computing -- Part Three (Relationships in the Cloud)
While there is much debate on the IT side as to whether Cloud computing is revolutionary, evolutionary or “more of the same” with a snazzy marketing label, in the legal context, Cloud computing does have a potential significant impact on legal risk. Part three of our ongoing Cloud legal series explores the relationships in the Cloud, and the potential legal implications and impacts suggested by them (if you would like, for context, you can read Part One [the Basics and Framing the Issues] and Part Two [Privacy and the Cloud] of the series.
In the legal world, some take the position that Cloud is no different than “outsourcing”. Unfortunately, making that comparison reveals a misunderstanding of the Cloud and its implications. It is sort of like saying that running is no different than running shoes. Like “running,” outsourcing is a general term describing an activity. In this case the activity involves organizations offloading certain business processes to third parties. Cloud computing (like “running shoes”) is a “new” method for leveraging existing technologies (and technological improvements that have occurred in the past 20 years) that can be used by outsourcers to provide their services more effectively and cheaply (as running shoes represents a technology that can be used to achieve the activity of running more efficiently). In other words, one can outsource utilizing a Cloud architecture provided by a third party, or by using a more traditional dedicated third party hosted technology solution. Both are different technologies or methods for achieving the same activity: outsourcing of business processes.
For lawyers analyzing outsourcing to the Cloud the question is whether the technology, operational aspects and various relationships of a given Cloud transaction create new legal issues or exacerbate known legal problems. To illuminate this question, this post explores the relationships that exist between organizations outsourcing in the Cloud (“Cloud Users”) and those providing services in the Cloud. Coincidentally (or maybe not so much) understanding these relationships is crucial for attorneys that need to address legal compliance risk and draft contracts to protect clients entering into the Cloud.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: infolawgroup.com
By: David Navetta
In the legal world, some take the position that Cloud is no different than “outsourcing”. Unfortunately, making that comparison reveals a misunderstanding of the Cloud and its implications. It is sort of like saying that running is no different than running shoes. Like “running,” outsourcing is a general term describing an activity. In this case the activity involves organizations offloading certain business processes to third parties. Cloud computing (like “running shoes”) is a “new” method for leveraging existing technologies (and technological improvements that have occurred in the past 20 years) that can be used by outsourcers to provide their services more effectively and cheaply (as running shoes represents a technology that can be used to achieve the activity of running more efficiently). In other words, one can outsource utilizing a Cloud architecture provided by a third party, or by using a more traditional dedicated third party hosted technology solution. Both are different technologies or methods for achieving the same activity: outsourcing of business processes.
For lawyers analyzing outsourcing to the Cloud the question is whether the technology, operational aspects and various relationships of a given Cloud transaction create new legal issues or exacerbate known legal problems. To illuminate this question, this post explores the relationships that exist between organizations outsourcing in the Cloud (“Cloud Users”) and those providing services in the Cloud. Coincidentally (or maybe not so much) understanding these relationships is crucial for attorneys that need to address legal compliance risk and draft contracts to protect clients entering into the Cloud.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: infolawgroup.com
By: David Navetta
ToshibaTen Years Later: A Look Back at Beaumont's Big Settlement
It's been 10 years since Toshiba settled what is probably the largest recovery ever obtained in a class action lawsuit for economic damages.
On Oct. 28, 1999, lead class plaintiffs Ethan Shaw and Clive D. Moon settled a lawsuit with Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. and NEC Electronics for $2.1 billion after complaining that floppy diskette controllers in the machines were defective. Lawyers Hubert Oxford III of Beaumont, Gilbert I. "Buddy" Low of Orgain, Bell and Tucker in Beaumont, L. DeWayne Layfield of Pasadena and Wayne Reaud received $147.5 million in attorneys' fees for their work.
When it was announced, the extraordinarily large settlement shocked some lawyers who couldn't understand why the company was willing to pay such an exorbitant amount.
"I'm just baffled by it," Charles L. Kerr, a lawyer for Morrison and Foerster in New York who worked on computer liability cases, told the New York Times two days after the settlement was announced. "It's a substantial hit and they must have had pretty good reasons for taking a substantial hit."
But Toshiba executives defended the settlement, saying they could have been forced to pay much more - up to $9.5 billion -- if they had lost the litigation in a jury trial.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: setexasrecord.com
By: Kelly Holleran
On Oct. 28, 1999, lead class plaintiffs Ethan Shaw and Clive D. Moon settled a lawsuit with Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. and NEC Electronics for $2.1 billion after complaining that floppy diskette controllers in the machines were defective. Lawyers Hubert Oxford III of Beaumont, Gilbert I. "Buddy" Low of Orgain, Bell and Tucker in Beaumont, L. DeWayne Layfield of Pasadena and Wayne Reaud received $147.5 million in attorneys' fees for their work.
When it was announced, the extraordinarily large settlement shocked some lawyers who couldn't understand why the company was willing to pay such an exorbitant amount.
"I'm just baffled by it," Charles L. Kerr, a lawyer for Morrison and Foerster in New York who worked on computer liability cases, told the New York Times two days after the settlement was announced. "It's a substantial hit and they must have had pretty good reasons for taking a substantial hit."
But Toshiba executives defended the settlement, saying they could have been forced to pay much more - up to $9.5 billion -- if they had lost the litigation in a jury trial.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
------------------------------------------
Source: setexasrecord.com
By: Kelly Holleran
BC Rail trial must be fair, not perfect: judge
BC Rail trial must be fair, not perfect: judge
The defence team in a long-running political corruption trial has been reminded in the Supreme Court of British Columbia that justice in Canada means a fair trial – not a perfect one.
Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie issued the caution Wednesday as she heard arguments from the lawyers defending two of three former government employees accused of fraud, breach of trust and money laundering surrounding the $1-billion sale of BC Rail.
Kevin McCullough, who represents Bobby Virk, and Michael Bolton, representing Dave Basi, have been pressing the court for an order to make BC Rail provide e-mail records for a key period surrounding the sale – from December, 2003, to February, 2004.
Court has heard the e-mail records may or may not be on BC Rail computer backup tapes which are in storage, but not indexed, and which would be difficult and costly to search.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: theglobeandmail.com
By: Mark Hume
The defence team in a long-running political corruption trial has been reminded in the Supreme Court of British Columbia that justice in Canada means a fair trial – not a perfect one.
Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie issued the caution Wednesday as she heard arguments from the lawyers defending two of three former government employees accused of fraud, breach of trust and money laundering surrounding the $1-billion sale of BC Rail.
Kevin McCullough, who represents Bobby Virk, and Michael Bolton, representing Dave Basi, have been pressing the court for an order to make BC Rail provide e-mail records for a key period surrounding the sale – from December, 2003, to February, 2004.
Court has heard the e-mail records may or may not be on BC Rail computer backup tapes which are in storage, but not indexed, and which would be difficult and costly to search.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
------------------------------------------
Source: theglobeandmail.com
By: Mark Hume
Data Storage Best Practices
For the first time ever, the amount of digital data created each year now exceeds the world's available storage space. This may not come as a surprise to the executives running businesses of all sizes across the globe. They face a daily deluge of data from every department -- administrative, financial, legal and operational.
At the same time, these businesses must comply with compliance requirements defined by state and federal regulators, their industry and legal precedence.
Amid this era of increasing compliance, IT budgets are now even leaner and meaner. Total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) continue to drive IT budget planning and spending. However, businesses now see that it is essential not just to look at the price of IT hardware, but at the whole product lifecycle.
Despite this convergence of negative factors, businesses today require 24x7 access to data. Instant access to data is now taken for granted, whether in the office, on the road or working remotely.
Corporate data is a strategic asset. Improperly managed, it can become a significant liability. In the case of a litigation request, for example, companies are responsible for producing the required information needed for their defense -- and this now includes email correspondence.
Information Lifecycle Management
To protect themselves adequately, businesses must improve how they manage and protect their business records. As new regulatory rules are created and the number of disaster recovery scenarios increases, Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) now plays a pivotal role in helping companies adhere to new standards while incurring minimum management headaches. ILM is not a specific technology. Instead, it is a combination of processes and technologies that determines how data flows through an environment. By doing so, it helps companies manage their data from the moment it is created to the time it is no longer needed.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: wwpi.com
By: Marije Stijnen
At the same time, these businesses must comply with compliance requirements defined by state and federal regulators, their industry and legal precedence.
Amid this era of increasing compliance, IT budgets are now even leaner and meaner. Total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) continue to drive IT budget planning and spending. However, businesses now see that it is essential not just to look at the price of IT hardware, but at the whole product lifecycle.
Despite this convergence of negative factors, businesses today require 24x7 access to data. Instant access to data is now taken for granted, whether in the office, on the road or working remotely.
Corporate data is a strategic asset. Improperly managed, it can become a significant liability. In the case of a litigation request, for example, companies are responsible for producing the required information needed for their defense -- and this now includes email correspondence.
Information Lifecycle Management
To protect themselves adequately, businesses must improve how they manage and protect their business records. As new regulatory rules are created and the number of disaster recovery scenarios increases, Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) now plays a pivotal role in helping companies adhere to new standards while incurring minimum management headaches. ILM is not a specific technology. Instead, it is a combination of processes and technologies that determines how data flows through an environment. By doing so, it helps companies manage their data from the moment it is created to the time it is no longer needed.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: wwpi.com
By: Marije Stijnen
Turning data into evidence
Electronic discovery can put your organisation under immense pressure to retrieve information from a wide range of sources, ranging from email archives to file servers and desktop and mobile devices. However all that effort can come to nought if your documents are not accepted as evidence by the court.
Electronic evidence is a relatively new phenomenon and is rapidly becoming the default form of documentary evidence. Information is now largely created and stored digitally and email is now the leading form of communication.
When you are responding to a discovery order or preparing for a court action, it is important to deal with documents in a way that ensures their integrity is not compromised so that, if required, they can be used as evidence in court and that the maximum weight can be applied to the evidence.
Courts in Australia are guided by rules of evidence that exist at common law and a range of legislation (in various forms of the Evidence Acts). To cite a document as evidence in a court, electronic documents must meet the definition of ‘document’ under the relevant Evidence Act. The definitions are broadly similar across the Commonwealth and various states.
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Source: idm.net.au
By: Allison Stanfield
Electronic evidence is a relatively new phenomenon and is rapidly becoming the default form of documentary evidence. Information is now largely created and stored digitally and email is now the leading form of communication.
When you are responding to a discovery order or preparing for a court action, it is important to deal with documents in a way that ensures their integrity is not compromised so that, if required, they can be used as evidence in court and that the maximum weight can be applied to the evidence.
Courts in Australia are guided by rules of evidence that exist at common law and a range of legislation (in various forms of the Evidence Acts). To cite a document as evidence in a court, electronic documents must meet the definition of ‘document’ under the relevant Evidence Act. The definitions are broadly similar across the Commonwealth and various states.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: idm.net.au
By: Allison Stanfield
Ex-Toyota Lawyer Holds Tight to Whistleblower Suit
Dimitrios Biller and Samuel Wilner drove 3 1/2 hours from Dallas to Marshall, Texas, on the warm last day of September, carrying four banker's boxes of documents that could prove that Toyota hid evidence in death and injury accident cases.
Biller had organized the documents chronologically, packing them in the Toyota boxes he'd been given to take his stuff when he left the company's legal department two years ago. He flew with Wilner, an old friend and fellow lawyer, from his home in Los Angeles to personally deliver the boxes to the federal courthouse in Marshall.
"Those boxes of documents are very important to me," Biller said this week. "I'm not going to turn them over to Federal Express -- it's not happening." It was the end of a wild month that started when the TV news networks discovered Biller's whistleblower lawsuit accusing the automaker of concealing and destroying evidence to keep "its vehicles' structural shortcoming from becoming known" in hundreds of cases. Toyota has issued several press releases to discredit Biller, who was its national manager of rollover litigation from 2003 to 2007.
Plaintiff lawyers are now trying to reopen cases, like Lopez v. Toyota , in which the Lopez family alleges that the seat recliner failed when their Toyota Corolla was rear-ended and the father's seat smashed his daughter in the face, causing her to be blinded in one eye. It was the effort to reopen that case, and others in Texas, that drew Biller to hand-deliver the four boxes .
Biller, 47, has never been one to let things out of his grasp. As a younger lawyer at Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro in Los Angeles, several former colleagues say, Biller would grab onto an argument or an issue and never let go. He believed in his cases with an earnestness that sometimes surprised colleagues and opponents.
But in later years, Biller may have lost a grip on his own emotional state. In his own lawsuits, Biller says he suffered "a complete mental and physical breakdown" while working at Toyota and was diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
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Source: law.com
By: Zusha Elinson
Biller had organized the documents chronologically, packing them in the Toyota boxes he'd been given to take his stuff when he left the company's legal department two years ago. He flew with Wilner, an old friend and fellow lawyer, from his home in Los Angeles to personally deliver the boxes to the federal courthouse in Marshall.
"Those boxes of documents are very important to me," Biller said this week. "I'm not going to turn them over to Federal Express -- it's not happening." It was the end of a wild month that started when the TV news networks discovered Biller's whistleblower lawsuit accusing the automaker of concealing and destroying evidence to keep "its vehicles' structural shortcoming from becoming known" in hundreds of cases. Toyota has issued several press releases to discredit Biller, who was its national manager of rollover litigation from 2003 to 2007.
Plaintiff lawyers are now trying to reopen cases, like Lopez v. Toyota , in which the Lopez family alleges that the seat recliner failed when their Toyota Corolla was rear-ended and the father's seat smashed his daughter in the face, causing her to be blinded in one eye. It was the effort to reopen that case, and others in Texas, that drew Biller to hand-deliver the four boxes .
Biller, 47, has never been one to let things out of his grasp. As a younger lawyer at Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro in Los Angeles, several former colleagues say, Biller would grab onto an argument or an issue and never let go. He believed in his cases with an earnestness that sometimes surprised colleagues and opponents.
But in later years, Biller may have lost a grip on his own emotional state. In his own lawsuits, Biller says he suffered "a complete mental and physical breakdown" while working at Toyota and was diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: law.com
By: Zusha Elinson
Engineers create fingernail-size chip that holds 1TB of data
Engineers have created a new fingernail-size chip that can hold 1 trillion bytes (a terabyte) of data -- 50 times the capacity of today's best silicon-based chip technologies.
The engineers, from North Carolina State University, said their nanostructured Ni-MgO system can store up to 20 high-definition DVDs or 250 million pages of text, "far exceeding the storage capacities of today's computer memory systems."
The team of engineers was led by Jagdish "Jay" Narayan, director of the National Science Foundation Center for Advanced Materials and Smart Structures at the university.
The engineers made their breakthrough using the process of selective doping, in which an impurity is added to a material whose properties consequently change.
Working at the nanoscale, the engineers added metal nickel to magnesium oxide, a ceramic. The resulting material contained clusters of nickel atoms no bigger than 10 square nanometers -- a pinhead has a diameter of 1 million nanometers. The discovery represents a 90% size reduction compared with today's techniques, and an advancement that could boost computer storage capacity.
"Instead of making a chip that stores 20 gigabytes, you have one that can handle one terabyte, or 50 times more data," Narayan said in a press release.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Computerworld
By: Lucas Mearian
The engineers, from North Carolina State University, said their nanostructured Ni-MgO system can store up to 20 high-definition DVDs or 250 million pages of text, "far exceeding the storage capacities of today's computer memory systems."
The team of engineers was led by Jagdish "Jay" Narayan, director of the National Science Foundation Center for Advanced Materials and Smart Structures at the university.
The engineers made their breakthrough using the process of selective doping, in which an impurity is added to a material whose properties consequently change.
Working at the nanoscale, the engineers added metal nickel to magnesium oxide, a ceramic. The resulting material contained clusters of nickel atoms no bigger than 10 square nanometers -- a pinhead has a diameter of 1 million nanometers. The discovery represents a 90% size reduction compared with today's techniques, and an advancement that could boost computer storage capacity.
"Instead of making a chip that stores 20 gigabytes, you have one that can handle one terabyte, or 50 times more data," Narayan said in a press release.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: Computerworld
By: Lucas Mearian
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
A Sidekick crisis post mortem on cloud confidence
I was sitting in the dentist's chair getting my teeth drilled, while the technician complained about her now-worthless Sidekick. With no way to access her contact lists, she couldn't get in touch with her family due to arrive in DC for a reunion, and had to rely on the frequently failing device as a simple inbound line for family members to contact her. When that failed, she had to use a payphone.
Thousands of users were faced with a similar communication breakdown...for more than a week.
People threaten to sue Google when Gmail goes down for mere hours. But the poor Sidekick customers lost use of their phones, lost their personal data (in some cases permanently), and even lost the ability to turn off or restart their devices for upwards of nine days.
Microsoft and T-Mobile claim to have restored much of the lost data, and now offer a recovery tool on the T-Mobile site, but the incident was just too tremendous to simply walk away from. The whole concept of Web-based, shared, and distributed cloud services now has a huge black mark smeared across it, even though the Sidekick's contact, calendar, photo, and info sync is only vaguely a "cloud" service.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: betanews.com
By Tim Conneally
Thousands of users were faced with a similar communication breakdown...for more than a week.
People threaten to sue Google when Gmail goes down for mere hours. But the poor Sidekick customers lost use of their phones, lost their personal data (in some cases permanently), and even lost the ability to turn off or restart their devices for upwards of nine days.
Microsoft and T-Mobile claim to have restored much of the lost data, and now offer a recovery tool on the T-Mobile site, but the incident was just too tremendous to simply walk away from. The whole concept of Web-based, shared, and distributed cloud services now has a huge black mark smeared across it, even though the Sidekick's contact, calendar, photo, and info sync is only vaguely a "cloud" service.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: betanews.com
By Tim Conneally
Can we control records in the cloud?
While at the ARMA 09 Conference last week, I learned about a range of issues related to records management, and I must admit I don't think about this end of content management as much as I probably should. The fact is that records management runs the gamut from paper records to electronic ones, and more recently even records stored in the cloud. In fact, at a lively session hosted by the extremely knowledgeable and personable Alan Pelz-Sharpe of CMS Watch, there was a wide-ranging discussion about managing records, and whether you should be using cloud applications at all if you're serious about records management.
There is a great deal of anxiety and even mistrust among record keepers when it comes to the cloud, and the consensus seemed to be against records storage in the cloud, at least until the technological and legal issues get worked out.
A step back to enterprise 2.0
As I was thinking about the viability of the cloud from a records management perspective, I remembered the "Night in the Cloud" event at Enterprise 2.0. There, Doug Cornelius, who is Chief Compliance Officer at a real estate private equity firm based in Boston had a lot to say on the subject. You can read his thoughts in this post (and more here in this follow-up article by Alexander Howard on SearchCompliance.com), but the gist is that while Cornelius won't dismiss the cloud as an option, he's not ready to give it his stamp of approval either. At a minimum, he suggests that you have all of your contractual ducks in a row, and that means putting the vendors' feet to the fire by asking the hard questions about data ownership, data maintenance and data governance and retrieval.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: fiercecontentmanagement.com
By Ron Miller
There is a great deal of anxiety and even mistrust among record keepers when it comes to the cloud, and the consensus seemed to be against records storage in the cloud, at least until the technological and legal issues get worked out.
A step back to enterprise 2.0
As I was thinking about the viability of the cloud from a records management perspective, I remembered the "Night in the Cloud" event at Enterprise 2.0. There, Doug Cornelius, who is Chief Compliance Officer at a real estate private equity firm based in Boston had a lot to say on the subject. You can read his thoughts in this post (and more here in this follow-up article by Alexander Howard on SearchCompliance.com), but the gist is that while Cornelius won't dismiss the cloud as an option, he's not ready to give it his stamp of approval either. At a minimum, he suggests that you have all of your contractual ducks in a row, and that means putting the vendors' feet to the fire by asking the hard questions about data ownership, data maintenance and data governance and retrieval.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
---------------------------------------------
Source: fiercecontentmanagement.com
By Ron Miller
E-Banking on a Locked Down PC, Part II
A pair of Security Fix blog posts last week urging businesses to consider using something other than Microsoft Windows when banking online elicited strong reactions from readers. Most said they thought it was a fresh perspective and sound advice, while others criticized me for going too far or for failing to recommend less drastic alternatives.
Let me be clear: The advice was aimed not at consumers, but at small to mid-sized companies that may not have a full-time IT/security staff, and who rely on one or two people to handle their bank accounts and payroll online.
That said, I wanted to respond to a couple of specific alternatives suggested by readers, because I felt they fell short of the level of security that these companies need to avoid becoming the next victim.
For example, some readers emphasized the importance of ensuring that employees' Windows computers are running under a limited user account that does not have the ability to install software or alter critical system settings. This so-called least-privilege principle is foundational in the field of computer security, as it can defeat many malicious software attacks. Indeed, I recommend the approach so frequently that if you Google for the term "limited user" you will see my column as the first entry.
Still, a number of today's more advanced threats - including the Zeus Trojan, a sophisticated family of malware most commonly associated with these attacks against small businesses -- will just as happily run on a limited user account as an administrator account in Windows.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: voices.washingtonpost.com
By Brian Krebs
Let me be clear: The advice was aimed not at consumers, but at small to mid-sized companies that may not have a full-time IT/security staff, and who rely on one or two people to handle their bank accounts and payroll online.
That said, I wanted to respond to a couple of specific alternatives suggested by readers, because I felt they fell short of the level of security that these companies need to avoid becoming the next victim.
For example, some readers emphasized the importance of ensuring that employees' Windows computers are running under a limited user account that does not have the ability to install software or alter critical system settings. This so-called least-privilege principle is foundational in the field of computer security, as it can defeat many malicious software attacks. Indeed, I recommend the approach so frequently that if you Google for the term "limited user" you will see my column as the first entry.
Still, a number of today's more advanced threats - including the Zeus Trojan, a sophisticated family of malware most commonly associated with these attacks against small businesses -- will just as happily run on a limited user account as an administrator account in Windows.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
---------------------------------------------
Source: voices.washingtonpost.com
By Brian Krebs
Court tweets sustained but paper still lurks
The seemingly steeped-in-tradition Federal Court surprised a few observers last week when it coolly accepted Twitter's presence in its rooms. But its broader approach to technology is nothing short of ambiguous.
For a court system that has in many ways yet to technologically evolve, its handling of Twitter's arrival was impressive. Federal Court chief executive Warwick Soden effectively said the court was fine with the practice, so long as the judge was.
It made the court seem like, well, "an early adopter". OK, it didn't use Twitter itself, but it wasn't averse to it being used to communicate to the public from within the court — a much cooler approach than the US Tennis Association's take on it, which raised the ire of Andy Roddick earlier this year.
Justice Dennis Cowdroy, presiding over the case, went a step further, telling The Australian, that Twitter may even have it over "traditional media". "Twittering can serve to inform the public in a more speedy and comprehensive manner than may be possible through traditional media coverage," Cowdroy was reported as saying.
Despite the court's "suck it and see" approach to the use of Twitter by the public or journalists within the court, its broader approach to technology is fractured.
As Stilgherrian pointed out, if Twitter is allowed, perhaps it's time for video and sound transmission equipment too? By the way, if you're thinking of popping in to the court on 2 November when the #iitrial restarts, forget bringing image and audio transmission equipment — two very big no-nos. ZDNet.com.au had its video camera minded by guards at the metal detector gates for the duration of its presence at the court.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: zdnetasia.com.au
By Liam Tung
For a court system that has in many ways yet to technologically evolve, its handling of Twitter's arrival was impressive. Federal Court chief executive Warwick Soden effectively said the court was fine with the practice, so long as the judge was.
It made the court seem like, well, "an early adopter". OK, it didn't use Twitter itself, but it wasn't averse to it being used to communicate to the public from within the court — a much cooler approach than the US Tennis Association's take on it, which raised the ire of Andy Roddick earlier this year.
Justice Dennis Cowdroy, presiding over the case, went a step further, telling The Australian, that Twitter may even have it over "traditional media". "Twittering can serve to inform the public in a more speedy and comprehensive manner than may be possible through traditional media coverage," Cowdroy was reported as saying.
Despite the court's "suck it and see" approach to the use of Twitter by the public or journalists within the court, its broader approach to technology is fractured.
As Stilgherrian pointed out, if Twitter is allowed, perhaps it's time for video and sound transmission equipment too? By the way, if you're thinking of popping in to the court on 2 November when the #iitrial restarts, forget bringing image and audio transmission equipment — two very big no-nos. ZDNet.com.au had its video camera minded by guards at the metal detector gates for the duration of its presence at the court.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
---------------------------------------------
Source: zdnetasia.com.au
By Liam Tung
Zetta Opens Its Storage Cloud to All
A cloud storage provider that designed its system from the ground up to meet enterprise needs is ready to offer its service to the world.
The Zetta Enterprise Storage Cloud, from Sunnyvale, California, startup Zetta, is set to enter general availability on Wednesday after months of beta testing, evaluations and use by a limited set of customers.
Zetta is designed as cloud storage specifically for enterprises, with features such as encryption and data integrity checks that set it apart from offerings such as Amazon S3, according to co-founder and CEO Jeff Treuhaft. But industry analysts say the Silicon Valley startup may find it hard going up against services that are expected from more established IT vendors.
Founded early last year, Zetta is going after a relatively new task in cloud storage, offering to handle enterprises' primary storage instead of just backups and archives. It's a daunting task to take on the original copies of customers' important data, but the realities of building and running an in-house data center are starting to weigh on enterprises, especially in a challenging economy, some analysts say. Still, companies are just starting to get used to the idea of handing off this component of IT to a third party.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: pcworld.com
By Stephen Lawson
The Zetta Enterprise Storage Cloud, from Sunnyvale, California, startup Zetta, is set to enter general availability on Wednesday after months of beta testing, evaluations and use by a limited set of customers.
Zetta is designed as cloud storage specifically for enterprises, with features such as encryption and data integrity checks that set it apart from offerings such as Amazon S3, according to co-founder and CEO Jeff Treuhaft. But industry analysts say the Silicon Valley startup may find it hard going up against services that are expected from more established IT vendors.
Founded early last year, Zetta is going after a relatively new task in cloud storage, offering to handle enterprises' primary storage instead of just backups and archives. It's a daunting task to take on the original copies of customers' important data, but the realities of building and running an in-house data center are starting to weigh on enterprises, especially in a challenging economy, some analysts say. Still, companies are just starting to get used to the idea of handing off this component of IT to a third party.
To Continue Reading: Click Here
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Source: pcworld.com
By Stephen Lawson
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