Electronic
Discovery
Electronic discovery
is the detection of information in the digital format.
Electronic information is retrieved from computer-based
systems such as hard drives, CD ROMs, floppy disks,
tapes and other electronic backup devices that may
contain data. It involves the use of certain
technologies that enable easy and consistent extraction
of valuable data.
Today, there are millions of pages of
electronic data that are being transferred through thousands of systems
across the world every minute. The onset of electronic mailing systems,
instant messaging and other online programs has made data transfer very fast
and easy. In this process, there is the possibility of the data being lost
or tampered with. Electronic discovery systems help to retrieve even lost or
altered data as per user requirements. Electronic discovery can be used for
any kind of data retrieval, such as document recovery, data recovery,
evidence recovery and so on.
User files, backup media, spreadsheets, CAD/CAM/CAE and graphics, personnel
records, policy and procedure manuals, software and source code, internet
and intranet content, internet service providers, fax servers, personal
digital assistants (PDAs), telephone /security / network activity systems,
cell phones, pagers, voice/video mail and special databases such as CRM or
ERP databases are the typical sources of data. Electronic extraction has to
be done by professionals using proper tools, so that the information,
especially the meta-data of the document, remains intact. Once the documents
are extracted, they are processed through de-duplication.
Electronic discovery has its pros and cons. Rising levels of electronic data
storage, expensive lawsuits and strict laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley, which
require corporate archiving, are some of the reasons for the increasing use
of electronic discovery. Information gathered from electronic sources can be
used in litigation that can make or break companies. There are special
software programs that enable easy and efficient retrieval of any kind of
data from anywhere. There are some companies that specialize in providing
electronic discovery services.
Some of the top providers of electronic discovery services are: Daticon,
Electronic Evidence Discovery Inc., Kroll Ontrack Inc., Renew Data Corp,
ZANTAZ Inc, Applied Discovery Inc., Fios Inc., Ibis Consulting, KPMG and SPI
Litigation Direct. The top software programs in 2004 were: Concordance
(Dataflight Software Inc.), Summation (Summation Legal Technologies Inc.),
CaseMap (Bowne DecisionQuest (CaseSoft)), Access (Microsoft Corp.), Attenex
(Attenex Corp.), Encase (Guidance Software Inc.), iConect (iConect
Development), Introspect (ZANTAZ Inc.) and LiveNote (LiveNote Technologies).
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