Computer forensics and electronic discovery: The new management challenge

Recent American court decisions and legislation have shown that the failure of an organization to retain electronic documents and to be able to locate the information when needed can cost the organization millions of dollars as well as its reputation. In spite of understanding the need for compliance, very few organizations actually have a good understanding of how to implement a system that will satisfy the requirements for electronic document retention and retrieval for litigation purposes.This paper suggests some positive steps that an organization can take to minimize the likelihood of court-imposed sanctions for noncompliance with discovery requests for electronic documents. The first step is the creation of an Information Management Team that includes experts in computer forensics, law, information management, information technology, and auditing. The next step is to develop and implement an electronic document retention and deletion policy. Any such policy must retain the flexibility to implement litigation holds by suspending routine document deletion when litigation is imminent.