Lawsuits Can be an Expensive IT Threat
Black Hat conference warned to be ready with e-discovery responses.
* Train employees in how data should be handled to streamline the data-gathering process. For instance, storing work documents centrally and referencing them with URLs in e-mails rather than attaching them reduces space required for storing the e-mails and the volume of data to be turned over during e-discovery, Benson says. "There are deduplication technologies, but they shouldn't be relied on," he says.
Setting up response teams is key because if communications break down internally and data isn't produced, it causes problems down the road.
While the situation is improving, many attorneys are unfamiliar with corporate IT and unaware of where to look for data. They might, for example, ask just the relevant workers in a lawsuit to produce documents when it would be more comprehensive to involve IT staff that know what data exists and where it is, Benson says.
"Businesses need to find attorneys that understand technology well. It's pretty rare today, but that will change over time," says Benson, who is an attorney and an IT professional.
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