Top Ten Defensible Technology and Methods

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Complete Forensic Management

Top Ten Reasons

TO USE DEFENSIBLE TECHNOLOGY AND METHODS

1. It's Evidence.  Just as the Courts and law enforcement personnel rely on forensics principles and special tools to collect, protect and preserve physical evidence, so do corporations and IT professionals rely on the correct software and standard operating procedures to identify, collect, protect and preserve electronic evidence.  In the end, if there is an evidentiary issue regarding certain electronic data, the tools and methods used are relied upon to show that accepted software and methods were implemented in the case to preserve electronic evidence.  Using the data identification and collection tools found at www.TotalDiscovery.com means that all data acquisition (harvesting) activities are performed using strict computer forensic guidelines in such a manner that the evidentiary integrity of all data is maintained throughout the process.  Both the single machine and network data acquisition tools, techniques and methodologies used by the DiscoveryBOT™ data collection engine and the operations of TotalDiscovery.com follow forensically sound principles and meet or exceed standards promulgated by the U.S. Department of Justice and IACIS (International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists).
2. Spoliation.  Defensible practices are the first defense against spoliation claims.  Defendants and Plaintiffs alike are facing more and more scrutiny regarding the proper collection and handling of electronic data.  Contrary to popular belief, electronic data is amazingly fragile and can be very easily — and accidentally — modified.  The entire Computer Forensics field is centered on the identification, preservation, custody and control of electronic data and thus computer forensics principles and methods are what drive best practices in electronic evidence handling.  Indeed, parties in civil litigations and regulatory agencies are increasingly using spoliation claims to their advantage.  The only way to avoid spoliation claims from the outset is to use defensible and mature technology and to rely on sound advice from your legal team which, working together with the right technology, such as www.TotalDiscovery.com, can help ensure avoidance of those issues.
3. Neutrality.  In any litigation, the neutrality of the methods used in facilitating the electronic evidence collection is essential.  Electronic evidence is especially fragile and easily susceptible to inadvertent alteration.  There is a significant value to using neutral third-party tools to perform the harvesting (and processing) of electronic data, and the courts clearly have recognized that fact.  In case after case, both state and federal courts alike have focused on whether home-grown systems and internal IT practices are driving collection methodologies or whether instead, those collections are being performed in the right way, by using mature and accepted tools and methods – and possibly even backing those with help from consultants or a knowledgeable e-discovery legal team.  By using the e-discovery data identification and collection functions of www.TotalDiscovery.com, parties can ensure compliance with this important best-practice.
4. Burden and Liability.  Designing the tools and methods for harvesting of electronic data should never be tasked to an already overworked IT department – it is a waste of those valuable resources and is simply not the most efficient and cost-effective way to handle electronic discovery procedures considering an entire industry is tasked with and is motivated to design, build and implements e-discovery solutions.  IT should be involved in vetting good e-discovery data collection platforms and tools and should be involved in helping manage the process but IT should be aware that "homegrown" tools do not add to the defensibility of utilizing a vetted externally developed program.  Thus, IT should be involved in the process of procuring and implementing a solution but should be alleviated of a lot of daily work in actually performing the e-discovery collections – that is simply not a burden the IT department should be forced to bear.
5. Efficiency.  Proper methods employed by parties can save both time and money.  In addition to insuring the authenticity of data, using proper methods and tools to perform compliant e-discovery collections will ensure that the best methods have been used while maintaining cost-efficiencies that are so crucial to good legal budgeting and which lead to actually saving money and time in the end.
6. Accuracy.  When collecting live data from a network environment and from cloud-based or other hosted systems, traditional computer forensics imaging tools will not be adequate.  Thus, to ensure accurate data preservation and collections of data from those types of enterprise systems – such as is typically a part of most civil cases, a defensible and mature tool that is easy-to-use is a necessity.  With www.TotalDiscovery.com, competent IT staff can draw on their knowledge of their own company’s digital environment while combining that knowledge with the expert workflow of defensible and mature technology (such as by using TotalDiscovery.com powered by the proven Discovery BOT™ data collection technology); and, parties can be confident that all relevant data is identified, reviewed and produced correctly and efficiently.  Such thorough, yet cost effect methods help avoid issues of evidence tampering, spoliation and/or failure to produce relevant information.  Again, by using the right software tools and methods in the electronic discovery process, considerable value is added to a showing that all appropriate measures were taken to reply to discovery demands.
7. Verification.  Core to defensible data handling is the verifiability of electronic data as authentically duplicating the original.  Making a copy of data is not the same as performing forensically sound data gathering which requires using acceptable tools which preserve electronic data in its original form, with all of its metadata intact  thus enabling the subsequent verification of that collected data. The process of verifying data is what leads to the necessary requirement when working with evidence, creation of a “control set”, so that evidentiary problems, e.g., spoliation claims will not arise.  When imaging drives, that verification process is the responsibility of the expert performing the work but that verification is usually lacking when a targeted collection is performed.  By using www.TotalDiscovery.com to perform defensible targeted e-discovery data collections, the verification process is automated and can be vetted with a few simple clicks of the online administration panel by the person managing the process.
8. ROI.  Correctly designed and managed data harvesting will actually control costs and exposures.  As with anything, the initial expense of proper planning usually results in untold savings and benefits throughout the process.  Costs are controlled through the implementation of protocols derived from years of experience in the Computer Forensics and Electronic Discovery realms and thus any tools or methods implemented must rely on that type of experience and expertise – thus, only mature solutions should be analyzed before any new technology is used.  With TotalDiscovery.com and DiscoveryBOT™ - users can feel confident that years of experience and mature technologies are used.  For a party involved in a legal matter, exposure is controlled through the assurance that the electronic data is harvested and handled in a defensible manner, avoiding even the potential of spoliation claims resulting from improper data collection and processing.  The simple fact is that by using the right tools together with the right training and support, overall costs of the project should be reduced and help limit exposure that comes with doing e-discovery wrong – such as happens when parties are levied with significant fines, penalties and defaults that are likely consequences from improper electronic evidence collection.
9. Small Cost-Big Returns.  In the grand scheme of things, the cost of a mature and easy-to-use data collection platform is a very small part of the overall costs of litigation, but can pay back many times over.  In most cases, the vast majority of the preliminary work is done during implementation and training users on the software product to be used.  The goal is the complete, accurate and efficient collection of data for the remainder of the legal process to be accurate.  Indeed, the data harvesting software licenses and related consulting expenses generally form an extremely limited portion of the overall costs of electronic discovery proceedings, and a tiny portion of the costs of the litigation overall.
10. It's the right thing to do.  Time and time again, litigants are being penalized for cutting corners and not taking the appropriate steps to ensure the proper identification, collection and preservation of electronic evidence.  Simply put, the only way to properly conduct electronic evidence identification and gathering is to use proper data collection tools and methods such as www.TotalDiscovery.com – it’s simple, cost-effective and available any time via a browser.