Welcome to our first focused article on our FAST & SECURE© approach.
Find, Assess, Share, and Trust the data through a Specifically Engineered process for Client-focused Usability, Reliability and Enforcement.
We will be looking at Trust, and how it fits into our approach to eDiscovery. According to the Webster Dictionary Trust is defined as
1: Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something
a: One in which confidence is placed.
2: Dependence on something future or contingent: Hope
a: Reliance on future payment for property (such as merchandise) delivered.
3: A property interest held by one person for the benefit of another
a: A combination of firms or corporations formed by a legal agreement. especially: one that reduces or threatens to reduce competition.
4: Care, Custody
a: A charge or duty imposed in faith or confidence or as a condition of some relationship.
b: Something committed or entrusted to one to be used or cared for in the interest of another.
c: responsible charge or office.
In our approach, we Trust the Data that we end up Finding, Assessing, and Sharing with you and your team members. We have Confidence in the team’s ability to locate and identify the relevant data and that it is collected and transferred to us in the appropriate manner: forensically or not, securely, un-altered, with appropriate access granted/enforced, in a transparent and documented process that can be validated and can be repeated.
In saying that we Trust everyone, we do not do it blindly, we have checks and balances that help us to ensure that everything is being done properly. We Trust the direction we receive from our clients, we assist and confirm those directions before acting. In turn, we hope our clients trust that we will take care of their data and requests.
We have chosen to use the VenioOne eDiscovery Platform, because it made several things readily available to both our clients and our team from a reporting perspective, which allowed both parties to review and see the results of the activities that we were providing thus helping to establish a strong relationship. Further Venio provides a lot of transparency to the data through its visualizations (email analytics, clustering, dashboards and searching options) and supports the ability to trust what is being presented.
There are a couple of common considerations that may impact the trusting of the data, specifically file data from computers, network file shares, cloud storage:
Application Settings: for several applications, especially the Microsoft Suite of Products, there are options to set metadata properties within the files (e.g.: Author), that sometime go misconfigured. This may occur because of poor IT Policies in relation to setting up or transferring systems between users; or due to a lack of concern by the user when initially prompted to set this up. As a result, some of the data may be seen as being Authored by “Admin” or “Administrator” or maybe even just by a first or last name. Other System level meta data may hold the key to who authored, or last modified a document based on the computer / active directory account that made or changed the file.
Meta Data Removal tools: These tools to scrub or remove meta data are out there for a purpose, and it is with good reason (Privacy, Data Loss Protection, etc.) that people, or organizations may require the use of such tools. The flip side of why people use these tools may also be a consideration when you look at the data. If users have utilized these types of tools, then we can trust only the meta data that is provided.
Data Collection Approaches: How data is collected can impact the meta data we ultimately receive. For example, if data is COPIED without preserving the metadata properties, then the Creation Date will change, but the Last Modified will not. Other properties may change depending on how it is collected. Use of Forensic collection tools is the preferred method to ensure no metadata changes.
The eDiscovery platforms provide alternate ways to sort, organize, and visualize the data, so that you get a consistent and timely look at the data based on the way you want to work. And as you gain experience with the platform, your Trust in the system and the data continues to grow.
We hope that as we continue to work with clients, our relationships grow stronger because of everything that we do to ensure a FAST & SECURE Approach to dealing with their project.
Would you like to learn more about our services? Email [email protected] or call 289-803-9730. We would be happy to share more details about our self-service or fully managed eDiscovery services!
