Cybersecurity

Social Media & Cell Phones Still Represent an E-Discovery Battleground

Experts share their experience and insight around workplace trends and the value of technology tools to drive productivity and engagement in a roundtable discussion.

Part One of a Two-Part Article This deep dive into the specific cause-and-effect paradigms impacting the data privacy and e-discovery verticals illustrates broader trends in the overall legal technology job market while simultaneously giving professionals in (or eager to be in) those disciplines a clear roadmap of where the legal technology, data privacy, and ESI job market was, is today, and where it will be in the future.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses scrambled to rapidly deploy a remote workforce which created new challenges for businesses to continue operating and providing critical services. It also created an opportunity for malicious actors to hack into and gain access to IT systems and sensitive, personal information.

In the first case in U.S. Supreme Court history argued by telephone, the Court on June 30, 2020 ruled 8-1 in favor of Booking.com holding that it could register as a trademark its eponymous domain name BOOKING.COM.

In addition to helping make strategic business decisions, general counsel and chief legal officers are now often tasked with playing a leading part in a corporate cybersecurity and data privacy plan, according to the Association of Corporate Counsel's 2020 State of Cybersecurity Report.

For the past six years, the E-Discovery Unfiltered report to identify pricing patterns and preferences in electronic discovery, highlight projected investments in the sector, gauge the impact of the cloud, track shifting preferences in outsourcing and remote review, understand vendor selection criteria, and focus on the need for international ediscovery, among other trends.

Data is an asset and a liability. It fits into both accounting columns and will not fail to be used against a corporate entity if not secured properly. Databases contain trade secrets, personally identifiable information, HIPAA-protected health care information, proprietary information and classified data. As the size of databases grew and the importance of data became more evident, one thing became apparent: the information stored in those repositories had to be kept secure.