Alextronic Discovery
Alextronic Discovery
An Electronic Discovery Blog covering News, Articles
and Thoughts for the Legal and Corporate Community Author: Alexander H. Lubarsky, LL.M., Esq. - alubarsky@enterusa.com - Tel. (415) 533-4166 OR 800-375-4222 THIS BLAWG IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE WEB SITES WWW.DISCOVERYRESOURCES.ORG OR WWW.DISCOVERYRESOURCES.COM


Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Where else should I look?  

A Top Ten List of Hard to Find Data Hideouts

A few of the folks that attended my "webinar" asked me if I could create a checklist of sorts that could be used by the litigator who endeavors to uncover every shred of e-data that could house that proverbial smoking gun that may be used by or against his or her client.

Well, although, I do not submit that the following list is by any means comprehensive in scope, I will highlight a few of the "behind the ears" areas where too few data harvesting professionals remember to scrub. (I am assuming that the data harvester will request production of the "commonplace" sources of electronic evidence such as hard drives, backup tapes, removable media, file servers etc...).

1. Don't forget to ask for "mirror disks" these are not necessarily backup disks but they are servers with "mirror images" that are supposed to take over if the counterpart server dies. I've heard that counsel have found data on these mirrors when their counterpart was not produced or corrupted.

2. Thumb drives. Defendants are carrying around their smoking guns on their key chains these days. These little doo-dads are expected to store a gig of data by next year.

3. Digital film. You'd be surprised what may not be in the hard drive but on the digital video recorder.

4. Software itself. If the data cannot be accessed, you may need to examine the types of software used to create the data in question. What program is used? What is the version or release number of that program? What OS was the program written on? Was the application customized in any way?

5. Source code "escrows." Hard to explain, just ask for it if you find yourself in any trade secret type of litigation.

6. Home computers. Don't forget that almost half of all corporations today promote a certain amount of home office computing.

7. PDA's and Blackberrys. Data files stored in Personal Digital Assistants can unleash a treasure trove.

8. Printer memory. The printer itself may have captured the smoking gun, even if the computer is nowhere to be found.

9. PCMCIA memory cards. Most people are unaware that these cards can actually store evidence.

10. Cell phones. Believe it or not, more than one large piece of litigation has turned on a text message sent and received between two cellular phones.



posted by Alexander | 12:53 AM

Resources

XML Newsfeed
Technolawyer
The Virtual Chase
Law Pro Links
Law.com

Law Blog Links

Discovery Resources
Ernie the Attorney
TheCorporateCounsel.net
Blawg

Meet the Blogger

Alex Lubarsky is a practicing litigator and legal technology enthusiast. He was elected to the California State Bar Law Technology Executive Committee in 2003. Alex is a certified trainer and regularly teaches litigation support. Alex is frequent guest speaker at numerous legal technology conferences and State Bar events across the U.S. and has authored articles for legal technology publications such as Law Office Computing and The Bottom Line.

Weekly Blog Email

Archives

11/09/2003 - 11/16/2003 11/16/2003 - 11/23/2003 11/23/2003 - 11/30/2003 11/30/2003 - 12/07/2003 12/07/2003 - 12/14/2003 12/14/2003 - 12/21/2003 12/28/2003 - 01/04/2004 01/04/2004 - 01/11/2004 01/11/2004 - 01/18/2004 01/18/2004 - 01/25/2004 01/25/2004 - 02/01/2004 02/01/2004 - 02/08/2004 02/08/2004 - 02/15/2004 02/15/2004 - 02/22/2004 02/22/2004 - 02/29/2004 02/29/2004 - 03/07/2004 03/07/2004 - 03/14/2004 03/14/2004 - 03/21/2004 03/21/2004 - 03/28/2004 03/28/2004 - 04/04/2004 04/11/2004 - 04/18/2004 04/18/2004 - 04/25/2004 04/25/2004 - 05/02/2004 05/09/2004 - 05/16/2004 05/16/2004 - 05/23/2004 05/23/2004 - 05/30/2004 05/30/2004 - 06/06/2004 06/06/2004 - 06/13/2004 06/20/2004 - 06/27/2004 06/27/2004 - 07/04/2004 07/04/2004 - 07/11/2004 07/18/2004 - 07/25/2004 07/25/2004 - 08/01/2004 08/01/2004 - 08/08/2004 08/08/2004 - 08/15/2004 08/22/2004 - 08/29/2004 08/29/2004 - 09/05/2004 09/05/2004 - 09/12/2004 09/12/2004 - 09/19/2004 09/26/2004 - 10/03/2004 10/10/2004 - 10/17/2004 10/24/2004 - 10/31/2004 10/31/2004 - 11/07/2004 12/12/2004 - 12/19/2004 01/16/2005 - 01/23/2005 01/23/2005 - 01/30/2005 02/06/2005 - 02/13/2005 02/20/2005 - 02/27/2005 04/24/2005 - 05/01/2005 05/29/2005 - 06/05/2005 08/21/2005 - 08/28/2005 08/28/2005 - 09/04/2005 09/11/2005 - 09/18/2005 10/23/2005 - 10/30/2005 10/30/2005 - 11/06/2005 11/27/2005 - 12/04/2005 01/01/2006 - 01/08/2006 01/22/2006 - 01/29/2006 02/19/2006 - 02/26/2006 04/02/2006 - 04/09/2006 04/09/2006 - 04/16/2006 04/30/2006 - 05/07/2006 05/07/2006 - 05/14/2006 07/09/2006 - 07/16/2006 08/13/2006 - 08/20/2006 07/29/2007 - 08/05/2007 01/20/2008 - 01/27/2008 03/23/2008 - 03/30/2008 06/01/2008 - 06/08/2008 09/07/2008 - 09/14/2008 09/13/2009 - 09/20/2009 04/16/2017 - 04/23/2017