FBI Computer Forensics Labs Make a Digital Difference

A domestic terrorist. A kidnapper. A corrupt politician. An identity thief.

These are just of a few of those brought to justice with the help of the FBI's Regional Computer Forensics Laboratories (RCFLs), according to the latest RCFL annual report now available online.

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The Pivotal Role Of Computer Forensics In Today’s Litigation

Electronically stored information (ESI) continues to take center stage in all types of litigation, from bankruptcy to tort. Author Keenen Milner discusses the critical role computer forensics experts play in collecting and preserving digital evidence.

Over the past decade or so, attorneys have come to realize that some of the most valuable evidence is found not in filing cabinets but on computers and servers. The 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which expressly made ESI subject to discovery, also reflect the growing role of digital data.

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E-Discovery: When Legal Trouble Hits, the Delete Button Will Not Protect You

Many businesses hardly give a second thought to old e-mails, digital documents, and instant messages. But, if you don't know how long employees are keeping these documents, you may very well have some legal time bombs sitting on your company's network or employee hard drives.

Recent headlines serve as a chilling reminder that the e-discovery process can unearth damaging data that sinks careers and company reputations.

E-discovery Product Purchase Considerations

As data volumes grow, it's increasingly difficult to locate relevant data. Data must be retained longer, and storage users cannot be counted upon to intuitively locate documents, spreadsheets or other data. This is a problem when dealing with electronic discovery (e-discovery) requests that impose a legal obligation to locate relevant data in a timely manner or face fines and possibly adverse judgments. Today, e-discovery tools provide powerful search capabilities that can quickly process and index billions of files based on keywords and other common metadata. The tools can also present search results in forms that are easy to understand and often deliver results in a form that is directly compatible with litigation management tools.

Data Security Becomes More Affordable

Security for data – whether it be e-mail archives, projects under development or even access to an employee workstation – is becoming increasingly important for businesses. Data that has been stolen, whether from hacking into a network or from a laptop taken from an employee’s car, has been sold to competitors, even posted on Ebay.

Practices that have been used by large corporations to protect their data and systems have started to trickle into the small and medium-sized business marketplace, said John Steindorf, president of Capital Data Inc., a Milwaukee IT solutions provider.

Keeping Up With EDD Blogs and Tools

As I wrote last month in the first half of this two-part column, no lawyer today can afford to ignore electronic data discovery. No matter the case, digital data is likely to be implicated. That means lawyers urgently need to understand EDD and keep abreast of developments in the field.

In last month's column, I looked at some of the more useful Web sites for learning about and keeping current with this essential area of practice. This month, I survey blogs about e-discovery and look at some vendor sites that include useful resources.