| | January 20168CIOReviewE-DiscoveryE-discovery refers to any process in which electronic data is sought, located, secured, and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a civil or criminal legal case. In legal proceedings, relevant and privileged data is often shared with opposing council. E-discovery is a well-established practice with cases involving corporations, legal firms, government, and heavily regulated markets. The first case involving the forensic collection of computer hard drives was in 2000 (Commonwealth v. Michael McDermott).Historically, e-discovery has been email-centric, however, litigation has increasingly begun to include mobile devices, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), social content, hybrid information (mainframe, relationship, and special data), text messages (SMS), voicemail, files and metadata (Lake v. City of Phoenix). Furthermore, this landscape has expanded from an on premise environment to cloud services. Millennials view social media as the norm for communications; email is viewed as a legacy approach. Collaboration can take place completely outside sanctioned structures at any time, and from anywhere. E-discovery requests largely address specific end user communication, which can carry the full weight of the Courts for collection and adherence to retention policy. The law and technology are intertwined. Because of the complexity of e-discovery and the rapid evolution of technology, the rate of change often outpaces case law and budgets. (Large data sets used for analytics, "Big Data", are beyond the scope of this paper.) Historically, e-discovery products and services have been on premise solutions; however, more organizations are looking for cloud-based e-discovery solutions. There are many issues that organizations must confront when considering cloud-based e-discovery services: data residency, privacy, encryption (at rest and in motion), and Service Level Agreements (SLA) for response timeliness. The sizeable technical requirements and resources that cloud delivered e-discovery entails, as well as the increasing demand for these services from enterprises, will create a greater conflict in the market than already exists between e-discovery specialist vendors and larger infrastructure providers.Electronic Discovery Reference ModelThe Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) outlines a formal conceptual methodology for organizations to manage e-discovery (Creating Practical Resources to Improve E-Discovery & Information Governance). Use EDRM to discuss e-discovery technology with your general counsel and with vendors (Figure ­ 1). Figure ­ 1. The Electronic Reference ModelThe model shows that organizations need to have strong data governance to facilitate the process. The governance policies govern data identification and feed the analytical process. The Cost of E-DiscoveryTo contain costs organizations strive to limit the amount of electronic data collected by reducing collections points, clearly defining data custodians, and constraining dates and keywords. Reducing work early on reduces costs during processing, review, and analysis. Efficiency algorithms can reduce collection volume, and predictive analytics can speed up processing, review, and analysis.By Stephen Welsh, Assistant Director, CIO, Arizona Department of Economic SecurityA Brief Overview of E-DiscoveryIN MY PINION
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