Today is World Backup Day — an annual reminder to backup all your critical data. You likely know how important it is to routinely back up all your devices; it’s a trusty way to mitigate risk, anticipate unexpected events and align your work and your organization’s continuity plan. However, as someone who’s worked with data collection for litigation for over a decade, I can tell you one thing with certainty: not all backups are equally useful.

Tamara Porter, Director of Business Development, eDiscovery, joined our team six years ago and has led our efforts in supporting enterprise in-house legal teams across Western Canada. We recently spoke with Tamara about her rich background in the realm of tech and business development, her plans on how she will continue to support the success of our industry and why, she believes, there is “never a dull moment” in the world of legal tech.

Your M365 migration has been approved! Now you are left wondering: where do I start, what are the risks and how do I minimize disruption to my business?

These are common and legitimate concerns voiced at the beginning of any migration. But, moving to the cloud can be stress-free and seamless if done properly.

It’s a good day. The commute from your kitchen to your home office was seamless — no stepping on Legos for you. Your morning cup of coffee was brewed just how you like it. AND you’ve just found out that you’ve been given the green light to migrate your infrastructure to Microsoft Office 365™! But wait — now you need to move all your data to M365…

Also known as a litigation hold, a legal hold is a preservation order that ensures records are protected and left untouched should a litigation or investigation arise — a critical step in the eDiscovery process.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on December 12, 2019. Updated and republished on January 11, 2021.

Bad data is typically categorized as erroneous, duplicative, personal or sensitive in nature, but there's more to it than that. Bad data can also be defined as anything that is stored in an outdated or non-functional legacy software, kept for the purposes of record keeping. Whether it’s the nature of its contents or how it’s being stored, most organizations are increasingly faced with managing the complexities of bad data. What’s worse, the practice of retaining dirty data can cost organizations billions of dollars each year if they are in violation of information and data management policies and procedures. 

Since 2000, The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) has governed the collection of Canadians’ consumer personal information. If a company knowingly violates the legislation, it can face fines of up to $100,000 per violation. Though the Act has successfully held hundreds of organizations responsible for data breaches and illegal disclosures over the past two decades, it now faces criticism for not providing enough discouragement to disclosure in today’s digital age.

How can you address what you don’t know you have?

No, this isn’t a trick question. The answer is simply that you cannot. In order to know and effectively address what data your organization has, you have to take a few steps back and define, create, and implement an overall data strategy.

What happens when a legal event arises in your organization?

Last week, Andrea Williams, our VP of Technology and Emerging Solutions, was a guest on the Project Privacy Podcast, hosted by ActiveNav (formerly Active Navigation). During the 25-minute episode, she discusses why understanding and managing data from the onset is essential for streamlined eDiscovery — both for legal and IT teams.