Power of Proof Newsletter - September 2008
In this Issue:
Advising Your Client About Metadata
Evidence Authentication - Word Documents
7 Ways Your E-Mail Can Get You Fired
Moving ESI as Real Evidence
Advising Your Client About Metadata
Metadata: what is it and why should you care when thinking about your organization’s own content security strategy? As this article simply states, “…metadata provides technical, ‘behind the scenes’ information about an electronic file, and some electronic files contain thousands of pieces of this information. For example, an e-mail file has more than 1,200 metadata properties, including sent and receipt dates, reply, forward and copy information, and sender address book information.”
Although the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides a set of standards that one should follow when producing ESI, it doesn’t exactly address metadata. Courts are fuzzy on their metadata requirements, and this article is a good primer on its associated issues.
The article takes us back to an interview Surety CEO Tom Klaff did with Metropolitan Corporate Counsel last year, where Tom discussed some of the dangers associated with the authentication of electronic records and metadata. Check out Tom’s thoughts on why authentication is a critical issue when dealing with native electronic records and metadata.
Evidence Authentication - Word Documents
Top8, a security, compliance and e-discovery consulting firm, recently posted a blog asking readers, “”Electronic evidence presents unique authentication challenges. What are the specific issues for MS Word files?” As the author presents the litigation issues associated with Word documents – and the value of using secure hashing for the authentication of Word documents, Jim O’Connor, Surety’s Executive Vice President of Engineering, weighed in, noting the critical differences between a hash and a cryptographic timestamp.
“If something is hashed, it can be subsequently altered and rehashed. Such a change is generally not detectable. This is not true of a cryptographic timestamp. A cryptographic timestamp cryptographically binds a trusted time value to a hash and can prove when the data was secured and that it has not been altered since.”
If you’re looking for more information on how cryptographic time stamps work and compare to other technologies, visit our online Technical Resources.
7 Ways Your E-mail Can Get You Fired
We live in an era of constant connectivity, whether it’s through email, cell phone or social networking sites. And according to a recent survey, that constant connectivity is getting some of us in trouble. According to an msnbc.com survey, 14 percent of respondents said they "constantly send or receive personal email at work", while 31 percent said they "very often” do, more than 50 percent said they "sometimes or occasionally" do and 9.3 percent said they "never do."
These statistics are startling when you consider the fact that a survey by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute found that over half of all employers fire workers for E-mail and Internet abuse. The article highlights several tips for conducting online communication while at work, with the most important being that “you don’t own your e-mail.” As employers look to make their organizations litigation-ready, and to properly secure employee emails through email archiving solutions, we’ve experienced increased interest in solutions like AbsoluteProof for Microsoft Exchange.
Tampering with electronic records is not hard. With some software and a little computer know-how, any record can be tampered, duplicated and permanently altered. Given the increasing reliance on electronic records for critical business records – including intellectual property, employee records and contracts – the courts now expect corporate executives and legal and technology professionals alike to take the appropriate precautions to make sure their electronic evidence can be authenticated for use in legal and compliance proceedings. This article reexamines some of the steps organizations must take to authenticate their electronic records, and looks at back at Lorraine v. Markel for guidance.
See our take on that landmark case, and this issue here, if you want more information.