What You Need To Know About Cybersecurity and eDiscovery

As businesses rely more on digital systems to keep up with the demand and pace of today's data-driven landscape, they become increasingly vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks. These incidents cause serious damage to a company's reputation and welfare and lead to costly legal disputes.

Why Reliable Cybersecurity Is Crucial for Businesses and Legal Teams

According to a survey by Baker Mckenzie, 62% of respondents anticipate cybersecurity and data concerns to be among the top expected disputes in 2023. Cyrus Vance, the Global Chair of the Cybersecurity Practice at Baker Mckenzie, asserts that businesses are actually in a "global cybersecurity pandemic."

Cybersecurity incidents are increasing in cost and frequency. In the United States, the average cost of a data breach is $9.44 million. From 2016 to 2021, the total cost of cybersecurity incidents increased fourfold, while the number of events increased fivefold.

The severity of damage from cyberattacks is a major factor in the rising cost of these attacks. Confidential and non-personal data breaches cause financial, operational, and reputational damage to a company. Control system attacks can also have devastating effects. The digital infiltration of power grids, water treatment facilities, or food processing plants can severely compromise the communities that depend on these systems.

The most common types of cybersecurity incidents in the U.S. include:

• Business email scams involving unauthorized fund transfers
• Data breaches involving unauthorized exposure, disclosure, or loss of sensitive information
• Denial of service attacks that prevent or impair the end-user from accessing networks, systems, or digital applications
• Ransomware attacks that either deny end-user access or keep data hostage until the victim pays a ransom

The frequency and cost of cybersecurity attacks have given rise to increasing legal disputes. Since electronic systems may store an exorbitant amount of data, a diligent eDiscovery partner is essential to streamline the legal process and prevent future data disputes from occurring.

What Role eDiscovery Plays in Cybersecurity Disputes

Electronic discovery, or eDiscovery, is the process of gathering, maintaining, and utilizing electronically stored information, or ESI, for a legal dispute. The Electronic Discovery Reference Model, or EDRM, is the typical method used for this process. EDRM involves several steps, which dictate how to identify and process ESI for final presentation in a legal matter.

Examples of ESI include:

• Emails
• Instant messenger chats
• Web documents
• Websites
• Accounting databases

Because cybersecurity attacks typically target these types of ESI, an eDiscovery partner must be intimately knowledgeable about the potential risks that can arise from the breach of any type of ESI within a company.

When selecting an eDiscovery partner, you should consider its particular approach to cybersecurity, current defensive and offensive security measures, plan for cybersecurity education and training, and current compliance certifications. You should also implement a collaborative approach and involve your IT, regulatory, and legal teams when vetting an eDiscovery partner.

How To Strengthen Your Cybersecurity Measures

There are three major ways to bolster your cybersecurity strategy.

Zero Trust Policy

A Zero Trust policy involves the tenet, "Guilty until proven innocent." One of the pillars of Zero Trust is the assumption that all devices are considered breached until they are proven verified as trusted. This policy views all users as external entities of a company's network, and the system must authenticate users before granting them access. Treating each end-user as a potential cause for a cybersecurity incident decreases the risk of data breaches.

Secure Electronic Record Management System

An effective electronic record management, or ERM, system is the streamlined management of stored ESI on computerized systems. Such a system must be able to maintain electronic records throughout their entire lifecycles.

The qualities of a trustworthy ERM system include:

• Authenticity: Only end-users with direct knowledge of the business should create ESI. Policies and procedures should dictate the creation, transmission, receipt, and maintenance of ESI to ensure that data has adequate protection against unauthorized alteration. 
• Reliability: ESI should be an accurate representation of the actual transactions or facts of a business.
• Integrity: Every piece of ESI should be complete and unaltered. The system should maintain the website's structural framework to ensure reliability and authenticity.
• Usability: A website should be easily located, accessed, and identifiable. 

ESI should be consistent, complete, accurate, and securely preserved, especially if your legal team has to execute eDiscovery for a cybersecurity dispute.

Cloud Migration 

Modern cloud offerings include secure frameworks that meet stringent government security standards. When you migrate your legacy system to a cloud platform, your enterprise can take advantage of secure platforms with cloud applications that can streamline your business and make you less vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks.

How Cloud Tools Can Minimize Cybersecurity Risks and Streamline eDiscovery

Traced partnered with the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association and developed Trustd MTD to deliver secure remote working environments, data loss prevention, app security, and decreased risk of data breaches. Microsoft Purview is a cloud tool used to search and retrieve data across Microsoft platforms. This tool keeps your data secure, compliant, and discoverable. It is a reliable asset to have during the eDiscovery process.

To gain access to these cloud offerings and enhance your cybersecurity protection, cloud migration to Microsoft 365 is recommended. At Cloudficient, we offer next-generation migration technology to make the entire process as streamlined and hassle-free as possible. We also developed Expireon to make Microsoft Purview more user-friendly for your legal team after migration. Contact our team today to discuss the best migration strategy for your enterprise.

With unmatched next generation migration technology, Cloudficient is revolutionizing the way businesses retire legacy systems and transform their organization into the cloud. Our business constantly remains focused on client needs and creating product offerings that match them. We provide affordable services that are scalable, fast and seamless.

If you would like to learn more about how to bring Cloudficiency to your migration project, visit our website, or contact us.