Hosted by two leaders in the cyber-security industry, Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek, Digital Detectives is for listeners who are interested in digital forensics, e-discovery, and information security issues. Nelson and Simek invite digital forensic and computer security experts to enlighten listeners on the latest technology, cyber threats, and necessary security measures to keep online data secure.
As technology continues to become ever more integrated into our daily lives, the challenges that law firms face grow and evolve. Many tech savvy clients are not only concerned with a lawyer’s ability to represent them but also their ability to protect their files and privileged communications. With more instances of data breaches and hacking...
During the investigation of the San Bernardino shooting the FBI obtained a company iPhone that was used by Syed Farook, one of the assailants. The investigators obtained a warrant to search the phone, but it’s currently locked and the FBI hasn’t been able to access the encrypted data. This prompted the agency to request assistance...
InfraGard, one of the longest running outreach associations, represents a partnership between the FBI and the private sector. Members include businesses professionals (including many law firm employees), people from academic institutions, and local participants who share their experience and expertise with the FBI to assist in crime prevention. In the recent climate of rampant cyber...
Technology Assisted Review (TAR), also known as Computer Assisted Review, Predictive Coding, Computer Assisted Coding, and Predictive Ranking, has been around for 50 years, but is now becoming incredibly useful in the legal field. This technology can speed up cases of all kinds and greatly reduce discovery costs for their clients. But how do lawyers...
Following the terrorist attacks in Paris, French officials used metadata from a phone they found in a trashcan to gather information that made it possible to raid ISIS safe houses within a week. During these raids they were able to kill the suspected mastermind behind the operation, who was believed to be planning more attacks....
Although electronic discovery is increasingly important for court lawyers, only about 30 law schools nationwide offer e-discovery courses. To address the gap, Catalyst, an e-discovery service provider based out of Denver, has developed a practicum that aims to give law students the necessary experience to enter the workforce with adequate fundamental knowledge. So how does...
The Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS) is a member organization that offers certification and a community for professionals working in the field of e-discovery, both in the public and private sectors. Recently, experienced e-discovery service provider and industry leader Mary Mack was named the executive director of ACEDS. What will change and what are...
“It is very difficult to conceive of a scenario — short of nuclear winter — where an agency would be justified in allowing its cabinet-level head officer to solely use a private email communications channel for the conduct of government business.” – Jason R. Baron to the New York Times On March 2nd, 2015, The...
“33% of Fortune 100 Organizations will experience an information crisis by 2017.” – Gartner, an information technology research and advisory firm Recently, data breaches have become one of the most serious threats to companies worldwide, and as more corporate infrastructure moves online, studies suggest that the rising number of data breaches will cost 2.1 trillion...
John M. Facciola is a retired United States Magistrate Judge who formerly served in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He has authored over 700 opinions, many of them in e-discovery and in the impact of information technology upon Fourth Amendment principles. With an inside knowledge of how e-discovery directly affects...
In a recent blog post, Canadian lawyer and legal technology blogger Nathaniel Russell defined Lawmageddon as “the imminent confluence of events that will change lawyers’ lives forever.” This most likely includes technologies such as cybersecurity, cloud-based systems, encryption, and social media, which influence the legal sphere in a way that lawyers cannot opt out of....
Many of our listeners will know the term Technology-Assisted Review (TAR) by it’s more common nickname, “predictive coding.” Lawyers and judges alike need to pay attention to TAR due to potential changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) coming up in December 2015. And since almost all courts accept when lawyers utilize TAR...
From self-driving cars and drones to robotic surgeons and soldiers, humans are delegating more tasks to machines and software. But who is responsible when then these new innovations cause damage, injury, or death? Can we trust machines to prioritize preserving human life when accidents inevitably occur? Should we be thinking about sweeping regulations? In this...
There have been several programs looking at exoneration of people previously convicted of crimes. This includes The Innocence Project, currently boasting 325 DNA exonerations, and a project of the University of Michigan Law School that works on cases in which DNA is unavailable. The latter project had exonerated 1,553 individuals when we recorded this podcast....
Joe Looby recently released his documentary The Decade of Discovery about the United States versus Philip Morris tobacco lawsuit in the early 2000s and email e-discovery issues. The film also discusses the emergence of the Sedona Conference as a think tank and forum for discussion about cooperation in e-discovery. Many prominent federal judges were interviewed...
In November of 2014, hackers infiltrated Sony’s computer network lifting terabytes of corporate data, human resources information, internal intel, films, corporate emails, and other valuable information. This led the corporate world to question how protected we really are from cyber attacks. In the 1990’s, the only computer issue was viruses, but the attack vectors have...
As lawyers, we hear a lot about the technological advances in e-discovery and information governance. How do you describe the current state of e-discovery from an opportunity and growth perspective, and how does this market opportunity impact the pulse rate of mergers, acquisitions, and investments? For lawyers purchasing e-discovery packages, there are several types of...
“A cyber attack on the World Trade Center would be 10 times more financially damaging than the 2001 attack.” Data breaches like the ones at Target, JP Morgan, and Home Depot have recently been all over the news and are usually organized by hackers working towards financial gain. But there is cyber war happening with military...
Discovery, as all lawyers know, is the process of collecting and exchanging information about the court case to prepare for the trial. Traditionally, this was done by many lawyers over countless billable hours in which every page of potential evidence was examined for important information. Because of this, the more information existed in reference to...
In 2006, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure rule-makers developed and put into practice amendments dealing with electronically stored information (ESI) and e-discovery. However, most of those involved believed these amendments did not adequately deal with lost or missing ESI or “the spoliation issue.” In 2014 the rule-makers proposed Rule 37(e), which deals with the...
Despite all the attention that e-discovery has received over the last decade, it is still a relatively new part of the litigation process. For those lawyers who were never exposed to e-discovery in law school or their formative years of practice, the systems and products involving data collection and analysis can be overwhelming and complex....
Every law firm can run into incidents of employee misconduct, data breaches, and intellectual property theft. In the age of modern technology, data breaches, insider trading, and other security problems require extensive technological forensics. Partners and firm owners, as well as lawyers working within the firm, need to understand why a digital investigation is needed,...
All lawyers have an ethical obligation to employ security measures when sharing information and data with their clients. Whether that means encrypting all important emails or properly researching cloud based file-sharing services like Dropbox, it is incumbent on lawyers to understand the levels of security available. LexisNexis recently did a survey on what tools lawyers...
On February 12th of 2008, the FBI announced that it had hired Lockheed Martin to build its Next Generation Identification system (NGI) to deploy multimodal matching to biometric data of US citizens. Today, NGI’s database contains several types of unique identifiers including fingerprints, iris prints, and facial recognition. On this episode of Digital Detectives, hosts...
Some experts believe that, in addition to being prohibitively expensive for law firms to manage, maintaining immense amounts of client data increases the probability that it will be exposed to the public through a security breach or hack. That is why many like-minded firms are outsourcing data management to companies that specialize in it. On...
Some technology experts believe it’s not a matter of if law firm communications can be hacked, but when. With continuing reports of the NSA and foreign entities monitoring the privileged attorney-client communications of US law firms, lawyers may be required to take additional measures to protect client information. On this edition of Digital Detectives, hosts...
From malware and hackers to BYOD and TYOD, the biggest threat to law firm data could be the attorneys themselves. On this episode of Digital Detectives, hosts Sharon D. Nelson and John W. Simek interview data expert Ben M. Schorr and discover complex new threats to data security and the simplest solutions to reduce them....
In this edition of Digital Detectives hosts Sharon D. Nelson and John W. Simek invite Jason R. Baron, former director of litigation at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration to discuss Information Governance as it relates to e-discovery, privacy, record keeping and security. Baron connects the dots between all these areas and helps lawyers...
The first thing guest Alan Goldberg highlighted was the colossal cost of data breaches. He explained that the minimum cost is $100,000 and it has the potential to amount to millions. In this edition of Digital Detectives, your hosts Sharon Nelson and John Simek invite Goldberg to discuss the usual reasons for a breach, likely consequences, prevention,...
The Honorable John M. Tran uses the terms digital natives and digital immigrants when referring to judges. Coined by author Marc Prensky, digital natives are those born into technology and digital immigrants are learning the field as they go. It’s not uncommon for judges to be digital immigrants, forcing them to confront issues on the...
Edward Snowden’s leaks about NSA surveillance have been a hot topic in the media for the last few months. But what do lawyers, specifically, need to worry about? The answer is: a lot. On this edition of Digital Detectives, hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek take the stage and examine NSA surveillance...
Lawyers hold some of their clients’ most private communications, which makes them a top target of all hackers. As technology competence becomes the required norm, lawyers need to understand not only how to protect their clients’ information but how to react if a cyber attack does happen. On this episode of Digital Detectives, Sharon D. Nelson, Esq....
This episode of Digital Detectives discusses e-discovery vendor trends. Hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek welcome entrepreneur and friend Andy Wilson to share his insights on what’s going on in the industry and what’s to come. Andy Wilson is CEO and co-founder of Logik, whose e-discovery platform, Logikcull, was created to make complicated e-discovery projects easy and manageable....
On This edition of Digital Detectives, co-hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek discuss the Georgetown E-Discovery Training Academy with Tom O’Connor. The training consists of a week-long curriculum for those interested in becoming fluent in e-discovery through small-group discussions and interactive-learning sessions. O’Connor is a senior consultant for Gallivan, Gallivan & O’Melia,...
It’s easy to get caught up in the fast-paced transition to paperless E-discovery review. Firms are now converting evidence into TIFF files. What’s a TIFF file? It’s just an easy way to manage and send large amounts of evidence, right? Wrong. On this episode of Digital Detectives, guest Craig Ball explains that a TIFF image...
Digital Detectives hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek, president and vice president of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., welcome Stewart Baker of Steptoe & Johnson to discuss the 2013 Verizon Data Breach Report, cybersecurity legislation, and more. Stewart Baker has been described by The Washington Post as “one of the most techno-literate lawyers around.” His long list...
Find out what the experts in computer security saw at ABA TECHSHOW 2013 – things like attendees with no passcode on their tablets or smartphones and people connecting to insecure networks which monitored their data traffic (through a scary device called a Pineapple). Digital Detectives hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek, president and vice president of Sensei Enterprises,...
In this October edition of Digital Detectives, co-hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, join returning guest, attorney Craig Ball, to talk about special masters in e-discovery. Craig describes how an ESI special master gets involved in a case, what a special master...
Many are hearing about metadata in articles and blogs, but secretly admit that they don’t fully understand what it is. Digital Detectives co-hosts, Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, join Karen Massand, the President of Litéra, to take a look at metadata, whether...
Digital Detectives co-hosts, Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.,and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, join Christine Musil, the Director of Marketing for Informative Graphics, as they take on the Morgan Lewis’ Redaction Disaster. In that case, Morgan Lewis accidentally filed an exhibit that contained unredacted information, information its client...
Back in May of 2012, Facebook was sued for $15 billion for improperly tracking users even after they logged off the social network. Digital Detectives co-hosts, Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.,and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, join Attorney David Straite, partner at Stewarts Law U.S. LLP, Head of...
The case of the Craiglist Killer has lived on through digital forensics. The Boston Police released their case files in the Craigslist Killer case to the Boston Phoenix which then published a remarkable story about the investigation in April of 2012. Digital Detectives co-hosts, Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., and John...
How do you efficiently handle large volume e-discovery in a high-profile case? Digital Detectives co-hosts, Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, get expert advice from Joe Mulenex, the Regional Technical Director for Avansic, who assisted the discovery team for the Plaintiffs Steering Committee...
Are you guilty of making big mistakes when it comes to e-discovery searches? On Digital Detectives, co-hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, welcome guest Attorney Craig Ball, one of the country’s leading computer forensics technologists, to share his insights on brainless blunders...
One of e-discovery’s hottest topics today is predictive coding. So what exactly “is” predictive coding? On Digital Detectives, co-hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, welcome guest Dan Gallivan, one of the founders and Chief Technology Officer for Gallivan Gallivan & O’Melia ,...
How do you keep up with all that is going on in the world of e-discovery? On Digital Detectives, co-hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, welcome guest, Neil Squillante, publisher of LitigationWorld, who discusses his selection of resources for staying current in...
Is your smartphone really secure? On Digital Detectives, co-hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, welcome guest, computer scientist, and certified forensic analyst Andrew Hoog, co-founder of viaForensics, to talk about the ins and outs of smartphone security. Andrew shares his insight on...
The high cost of e-discovery is a major problem for most small firms and solo lawyers. On Digital Detectives, co-hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, welcome guest, Bruce Olson, the President of ONLAW Trial Technologies, and discuss cost-effective e-discovery for small cases. ...
What does the future hold when it comes to e-discovery? On Digital Detectives, co-hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, welcome John Munro, the Vice President and Managing Director of Orange Legal Technologies, to discuss some upcoming trends in e-discovery. John explores the...
This has been quite a year of controversy and e-discovery! On Digital Detectives, co-hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises welcome Ralph Losey, a partner in the law firm of Jackson Lewis and a nationally known expert, author and lecturer on e-discovery, to...
Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. is president of the digital forensics, managed information technology and cybersecurity firm Sensei Enterprises. Ms....
John W. Simek is vice president of the digital forensics, managed information technology and cybersecurity firm Sensei Enterprises. He...
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