At the onset of most disputes or internal investigations, there is a critical need to preserve electronic data from either inadvertent destruction by the data custodians or automatic deletion routines inherent within the company’s email and file systems.  The process of preserving data sources may involve making forensic images of individual hard drives, making logical images of various central server resources, collecting current backups of various email and file servers, and gathering and storing historical backup media.  In most cases, as a safety measure, the preservation stage tends to be more inclusive of data than the parameters of the actual investigation. Preservation of the electronic data sources does not necessarily ensure subsequent processing of that data.  In fact, after the dust settles, most data that is targeted for preservation is later destroyed after it is found to be outside the parameters of the case.

Based on recent court rulings, it is critical that any potentially relevant data be collected in a forensically sound manner, ensuring that any metadata and other file attributes are not modified or corrupted during the collection process. It is essential to have a forensically sound collection process so your team can be assured that the data has not been corrupted, hence helping your client to avoid costly data spoliation arguments. 

After the data has been collected, UHY Advisors begins the Data Evaluation process, which involves the select restoration of files from the data set collected.  More specifically, the process can help restore specific mailboxes from backup tapes, extract only user-created files and email stores from hard drive copies, and produce various other data differential techniques.  Instead of handing the “raw” data set over to a traditional eDiscovery vendor for bulk processing, UHY Advisors will restore and process only those targeted files, resulting in significant savings for your client. In fact, the quantity of data involved is generally only a fraction of the whole.  Simply put, there is no reason to process system files or other data that is not potentially relevant to a given matter.

Our professionals have the hardware and staff to expertly handle the extraction of terabytes of data effectively, ensuring that the eDiscovery component of your case stays on track, and most importantly, that the review and subsequent production of electronic files takes place as scheduled.

Data Acquisition and Evaluation Insights

1. The most critical step involved in a defensible data acquisition process is to establish a plan.  UHY Advisors' skilled and experienced technical consultants will help guide your team through the process of identifying data, its physical location, and the time period for which it exists.  Armed with this information, UHY Advisors can develop a targeted acquisition plan.
2. With an acquisition plan in hand, our team will make arrangements to collect copies of potentially relevant data stores.  Our goal during the acquisition process is to ensure the process is as covert and unobtrusive as your client requires – our team will take appropriate precautions so as not to interrupt normal business operations, which may mean collecting data during off hours or on weekends.
3. Once the appropriate data has been collected in a forensically sound manner, making certain that we do not disrupt metadata and other key attributes of the acquired files, we will return to our facility, catalog the collected media, and begin proper chain-of-custody proceedings so that the data set remains unspoiled.
4. As required by your team, we will check data elements out of our secure storage facility and perform an extensive cataloging process to determine the type of data that resides on each piece of media.  During this process, we will provide detailed catalog listings of backup tape media and complete listings of the user-created files that exist on hard drive images, among other reports.
5. With your guidance or that of your client, we will extract the appropriate files from the various media and prepare them for further processing, which may include the deduplication of email and files, and the application of a specific date restriction and search terms to further identify documents that may be relevant, within a specific time period.

UHY Advisors’ skilled personnel have assisted dozens of organizations with the identification, preservation, collection, processing, review and production of electronic data in response to numerous matters.  In all of these cases, the proper collection and subsequent handling of potentially relevant electronic data has helped our clients to avoid spoliation claims, save significant amounts of money, and ensure a defensible process is maintained.  Our professionals look forward to working with you and your clients to navigate through the potentially complex electronic discovery world.