NEWS & EVENTS
"First Business" Interview: E-mail is Forever
CHICAGO: October 26, 2005 - New York State's Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, has launched a crusade against the world's largest insurance broker, Marsh & McLennan, for unethical business practices, and e-mail is the focal point of his prosecution against the insurance giant. WCIU-TV's First Business News interviews Lee Neubecker, President of Forensicon, a Chicago-based computer forensics and electronic discovery firm, on the repercussions of e-mail and how it can be the smoking gun in a case of this magnitude.
"It's very difficult to delete e-mail. It can be done, but in a corporate enterprise, you have so many computers where the e-mail can be stored, so even though you might delete an e-mail off your computer, it's quite possible that someone else that received it saved a copy or did not delete it."
In a segment titled, "Technology Update," Tom Hudson, anchor of First Business News, asks how e-mail is considered a smoking gun in this particular case, prompting Neubecker to quote an e-mail communication from Marsh & McLennan executive to his employees (extracted from the New York Times), "We need to place our business in 2004 with those that have superior financials, broad coverage & pay us the most." Neubecker asserts that an e-mail like this is definitely a smoking gun. When the question of why these e-mails have proven so valuable to prosecutors is raised, Lee responds, "What it does first is it establishes a timeline for communication, and unlike the human memory, computers don't easily forget."
With electronic evidence, deletion does not equal gone forever. E-mail or any electronic data can live on in a person's computer. Deleting information sometimes only refers to the act of moving information from a location of easy access on the hard drive to one that is not immediately accessible. But that does not mean the information is erased from the hard drive altogether. If old electronic data is not overwritten by more recent input, a computer forensic tool is able to uncover information that still resides on the hard drive.
In addition, Neubecker mentions during the interview, "It's very difficult to delete e-mail. It can be done, but in a corporate enterprise, you have so many computers where the e-mail can be stored, so even though you might delete an e-mail off your computer, it's quite possible that someone else that received it saved a copy or did not delete it."
About Forensicon:
Specializing in trade secrets, employment litigation, and internal investigations, Forensicon is a computer forensics firm that provides expertise to the top law firms in the U.S. as well as corporations large and small. Forensicon offers nationwide computer forensics services for plaintiff, defense, as well as special master neutral third party representation. The firm has represented numerous Fortune 500 companies and other large privately held corporations wanting to defend against or prosecute claims of intellectual property theft. For more information, contact Forensicon at 888.427.5667, email us as contact@forensicon.com or visit our web site at: http://www.forensicon.com/
