Discovering e-discovery services: How information security pros should prepare

Chances are that you've recently been hearing quite a lot of buzz about e-discovery services. That's because amendments to sections of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took effect as of Dec. 1, 2006. Sections of these amendments set forth rules governing how companies prepare for litigation in regard to the collection of electronic evidence/information.

The rule changes are intended to recognize that companies manage and maintain electronically stored information (ESI) in fundamentally different ways than physical documents. The new e-discovery rules formally codify much of the preexisting case law related to e-discovery.

Fortunately, there's no need to panic as a result of the changes. Keep in mind that e-discovery is part of the litigation process, and should be driven by the corporation's legal team or outside council, not by IT. However, the e-discovery effort will involve several groups within the organization, such as legal, IT -- including

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Preparing for e-discovery
Before there is ever a need to comply with an e-discovery request, there are several tasks that information security professionals should perform.

Last thoughts
Compliance with the new e-discovery rules will require the participation and cooperation of multiple groups within a company. Information security and audit teams need to be involved in the creation of e-discovery processes and procedures. It could be argued that at no time are confidentiality, integrality and availability more important than during litigation.

For further study
The following materials were consulted during the creation of this essay.

About the author
Perry Carpenter has spent nearly a decade working in IT and information security. Currently serving as the information security manager for a large wireless carrier, he has expertise in identity management, application security and data encryption and privacy. Earlier in his career he specialized in application development and Active Directory implementations. He maintains a security resource Web site at SecurityRenaissance.com.

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