Tue. Apr 30th, 2024

Content Assessment: Grasping the New Norm? Modern Attachments in M365 eDiscovery

Information - 94%
Insight - 93%
Relevance - 94%
Objectivity - 92%
Authority - 95%

94%

Excellent

A short percentage-based assessment of the qualitative benefit of the recent post providing a commentary overview of Jason Covey's new information paper on Modern Attachments in M365 eDiscovery.

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Background Note: As the lead M365 eDiscovery Consultant in HaystackID’s Client Services group, Jason Covey provides a unique combination of consulting and technical expertise in operationalizing M365’s toolsets for eDiscovery and investigation matters. Covey’s new information paper highlights the significant shifts in eDiscovery due to the emergence of modern attachments – hyperlinks to files stored in the cloud. The paper emphasizes the risks of overlooking these attachments and suggests best practices to address these challenges. This paper may be useful for cybersecurity, information governance, and eDiscovery professionals, helping them to understand the potential and pitfalls of modern attachments.

ComplexDiscovery Backgrounder*

Modern Attachments in M365 eDiscovery: How Much Do They Really Matter?

Commentary on Expert Information Paper by M365 Consultant Jason L. Covey

“Modern Attachments in M365 eDiscovery: How Much Do They Really Matter?” is a compelling information paper by Jason L. Covey, an M365 eDiscovery Consultant at HaystackID. The new paper sheds light on recent shifts in eDiscovery, a legal process for identifying, collecting, and producing electronically stored information (ESI) in response to a request in a lawsuit or investigation. In his paper, Covey directs his discourse around five significant areas:

  1. The Impact of Modern Attachments: Modern attachments, alternatively termed cloud attachments, are essentially hyperlinks that point to files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. They represent a shift from the traditional email attachments, which involved sending the actual file. With the rise of Microsoft Teams as a premier business communication platform, modern attachments have emerged as a substantial and often problematic data source in eDiscovery, due to their widespread use and complex handling.
  2. Differences Between Standard and Premium eDiscovery Tools: The divergence between Microsoft’s Standard and Premium eDiscovery tools is explicitly outlined. Premium eDiscovery has the capability to automatically collect modern attachments while maintaining their contextual relationships, aligning with traditional eDiscovery practices. Conversely, the Standard version only provides a reference to these attachments without collecting their content. Covey suggests using Premium eDiscovery to tackle issues related to modern attachments more efficiently.
  3. Potential Risks and Challenges: The author brings to light a real-world scenario that elucidates potential risks and challenges that can arise when modern attachments are overlooked during the eDiscovery process. These risks can include missing crucial information, facing hard-to-meet deadlines, and delivering incomplete data collections. Such oversights could also result in a lack of confidence in the accuracy and completeness of the data collected, leading to possible legal repercussions.
  4. Recommended Best Practices: Covey underscores several best practices to address these challenges. These include understanding the use of enterprise applications within an organization’s user population, identifying the potential effects of third-party technologies, regularly updating practitioner training, and maintaining up-to-date documentation. He also stresses the importance of applying informed judgment when assessing the needs of specific projects, bearing in mind the nature and complexity of the case at hand.
  5. Controversy Surrounding Modern Attachments: The article introduces the reader to an ongoing debate about how modern attachments should be viewed in the context of eDiscovery. This debate originated from a legal decision, Nichols v. Noom Inc., which asserted that hyperlinks to documents stored in Google Drive locations do not count as “attachments” in the conventional sense of eDiscovery. This ruling challenged the status quo, suggesting that hyperlinks might not carry the same weight as traditional attachments in legal proceedings, which could have significant implications for how eDiscovery is conducted.

Covey emphasizes that the handling of modern attachments in M365 eDiscovery should be undertaken by trained professionals to circumvent potential mishaps. This proactive approach will ensure that the data collected is both comprehensive and defensible in a legal context. He underscores the fact that although the cost of using Premium eDiscovery tools might be marginally higher, the benefits of reduced risk and improved defensibility far outweigh the cost, making it a worthwhile investment. The article serves as a timely and valuable guide for eDiscovery practitioners navigating the ever-changing landscape of data types in today’s digital world.

Read the complete information paper at Modern Attachments in M365 eDiscovery: How Much Do They Really Matter? | HaystackID.


*Assisted by GAI and LLM Technologies

Additional Reading

Source: ComplexDiscovery

 

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