Legally speaking, laws governing records keeping and management have been around for years, with specific industries (e.g., lawyers, financial and credit institutions, medical facilities, etc.) being required to keep records for periods lasting from three to five years or more. The introduction and subsequent growth of internet-based communications has not changed the legal framework and requirements for these, but has irreversibly increased the need of email archiving systems.
At the same time, US courts have issued guidelines on what is called ‘e-discovery’ or exchanging information using electronic means in legal proceedings. The American Bar Association has, in turn, warned lawyers that e-discovery apparently covers all means of electronic communications – including storage media, personal computers, laptops, PDAs, mobile phones, and so on.
Aside from these sources of information, companies must be prepared to show that their records have not been tampered with. In the same way, they should be able to prove – if needed – that their opponent’s records have been tampered with.
The sheer volume of data that email systems generate compounds the problem. Even removal of spam leaves a significant volume of data left over – which have to be filed, stored and maintained in a form and manner that is easy to retrieve and track.
The legal requirements straddle into practical issues. Tracing an email trail (for litigation purposes, for example) often results in time spent and people ‘dedicated’ to a single task – searching through storage media, checking and counter-checking veracity and accuracy of data, and in some cases attempting recovery of information that has been deleted – all under the pressure of heavy penalties in the event of failure. Sophia Email Archiver has been designed to meet above requirements, download your trial today by clicking Here.
