I guess e-discovery related news and information are slowly but surely spreading across boundaries. The spread is further amplified with the recent security related news stemming from China and also news that there are now more internet users in China than in the US. Are you surprised? (Do your google search if you need convincing).

I recently downloaded the online chat application, ‘qq’ with the view to help me improve my mandarin writing and reading. However, I was informed by my Chinese friend that the security aspect of qq is not ‘secure’. She further added that I can buy some ‘security’ if I am willing to pay. Mmm..without going into the details, qq uses a business model unlike Skype or Messenger. I doubt the ‘security’ model (payment application driven) will bypass whatever the higher authority has in place or in mind.
To me, dealing with e-discovery without knowing or being aware of digital forensics and the various security models (and also the underpinning or overarching laws and rules) is like driving across the international borders without a guide (local or specialist person) and/or a Sat Nav device/system. Which is more important, a human guide or a Sat Nav device? I guess the answer is ‘it depends…’?!

It depends on a multitude of human and non-human factors/elements and as shown by the GEC Conference, digital forensics and privacy laws are picked to address some of the challenges underpinning e-discovery in cross-border litigation. A recent publication from Herbert Smith, ‘A Guide to Dispute Resolution in Asia 2009‘ provides some handy information with mention of electronic communications, e-mails, electronic document and electronic filing but no mention of e-discovery. Maybe the next Asian edition/publication will feature e-discovery.

The Association of Digital Forensics Security and Law (ADFSL) fourth annual conference will be held in Burlington, Vermont, USA on May 20-22, 2009.
The conference description has many keywords and touches on a wide variety of topics and fields. Ah! a conference in beautiful Vermont. I have not been there, have seen beautiful pictures. Maybe if investigative work is done in beautiful settings, people may be more inspired naturally to collaborate and work together . Well… the conference organisers noted this : Today, many professionals are working with others from different fields – lawyers are working with IT managers, law enforcement are working with forensics engineers. Well, at least they are trying.

On a different scale, the third International Crime Science Conference will be at the British Library in London on 15th July 2009. Mmm another place I have not been to. Instead of highlighting about professionals trying to work together, ‘gangs and guns’ serve the medium. Perhaps this is the only distinguishable aspects between crime investigation and ediscovery/edisclosure for civil cases. I guess delineating or distinguishing data/computer/digital forensics and digital evidence will be covered by researchers. High drama though occurs in organisations, courts and private rooms.

Besides giving the Information Commissioner tougher powers, organisations will need to improve transparency and accountability when dealing with personal information.

From the website, Jack Straw Justice Secretary said:

‘As new technologies have developed, the secure storage and careful sharing of personal information held by both the public and private sectors has become paramount.

Strong regulation and clear guidance is essential if we are to ensure the effective protection of personal data.

The changes we propose today will strengthen the Information Commissioner’s ability to enforce the Data Protection Act and improve the transparency and accountability of organisations dealing with personal information. This is very important if we are to regain public confidence in the handling and sharing of personal information.’

So now organizations will also have to add ‘sharing of personal information’ to their corporate governance policy or other ‘know your customer’ or ‘know your data’ policies. How organizations will deal with the data protection, privacy and sharing requirements will certainly add more drama to the arena of edisclosure or ediscovery.

Pretty soon organizations will also have posters on ‘Beware of Data!’. With a list of Do’s and Don’ts (like the ‘Health and Safety’ Notice). I hope the Do’s and Don’ts won’t be 100 pages like the guide from the Information Assurance Advisory Council (UK) (IAAC).

The IAAC published the Second Edition of the Directors and Corporate Advisors to Digital Investigations and Evidence. According to the IAAC website, the purpose of this guide is to make directors and, managers and their professional advisors aware of the issues involved in collecting, analysing and presenting digital evidence. The report can be downloaded here.

A great pity that the guide uses the terms ‘Forensic Computing’ and ‘Forensic Readiness Plan’’and at the same time stipulated that: ‘Although this guide is designed for use within the United Kingdom and the descriptions of the law refer to English law, many of the principles are universal in all jurisdictions’.

I just did a book search using ‘ediscovery’ on amazon.co.uk and got 12 books related to the subject matter. On ‘edisclosure’ I got none. There’re couple of books listed when I used the search term ‘electronic disclosure’ but only one is available on the amazon.co.uk site.

So, the IAAC Second Edition guide is a useful starting point for organisations looking for reliable sources of information on digital investigations and evidence. What’s more it’s free!
Many thanks to the work of the IAAC and to Professor Peter Sommer.

I attended the 1^st Forum last year and the focus then was mostly related to forensic stuff and presentations from top notch e-discovery vendors offering solutions/services based on the edrm.

Judging by the agenda, a mixed bag of themes and topics are planned for Oct 2008.

Heh! Incidents, investigations, readiness all sounds like fun to me. However I doubt if any of the technical and legal presentations will be fun.

Maybe the organiser will prove me wrong and comes up with 2 days packed with fun learning.

Anyhow, the listed agenda:

• Provide a wealth of practical information and examples of best practice on building proactive capabilities for disclosure and discovery requests
• Explain how best to contain costs while ensuring a high degree of forensic and litigation readiness
• Investigate how to strike the perfect balance when deploying in-house capabilities and using the services of external service suppliers 
• Detail what the perfect e-discovery crisis response team should look like, which departments should be involved internally, and explain how to ensure your organisation can react quickly and cost-efficiently 
• Highlight pitfalls to watch out for, and give pointers on how to overcome unexpected problems and hurdles that organisations can encounter during events and incidents
• Offer an opportunity to ensure that your policies are up-to-date with those of your competitors and peers
• Ensure you are aware of the issues you may encounter if you face a forensic or litigation engagement and are not prepared

Key themes and scenarios for 2008 include:

• Internally generated events
  > Fraud and theft
  > Investigations into employee activity
  > Employee disputes
  > Whistle blowing
• Compliance issues
  > Investigation by the government or regulatory body
  > Data privacy when discovering data in different jurisdictions
• Information leakage
  > Insiders divulging information (e.g. about mergers and acquisitions)
  > Espionage

Sounds an interesting presentation from the flyer which says ‘the presentation will explain in depth the approach taken by the Serious Fraud Office in the collection, analysis, investigation and presentation of digital evidence for the purposes of achieving successful criminal prosecutions. The presentation will also cover the interrelationships between digital forensics as a science, and the investigation as an art.’

It would be interesting to see what topics and/or papers will be generated.

Get a book if register by 1st May!

* Computer forensics and cybercrime
* Electronic discovery (eDiscovery)
* Internal investigations
* Records retention, data auditing and compliance
* Information assurance
* Computer incident response

Also, if there are any blogs on the conference please leave your comments here. Thanks!