The term eDiscovery or Electronic Discovery refers to the process of managing, preserving, and tracing computer data relevant to litigation and legal investigations, either within computer media such as computers or within cloud software.
This process stems from the need to recover sensitive data that has been lost or deleted, even maliciously, from a company's computer system.
In contrast to paper information, permanently deleting data in digital format is much more difficult, as they leave clearly distinguishable traces within computer systems even once they have been deleted.
What this article is about:
Deleted file recovery: protect your business!
Data is every company's most important asset-think of how many are exchanged daily just via email.
To protect your business, you cannot afford the slightest mistake; you must play it by ear by choosing solutions that allow you to manage, store and retrieve data at any time if you need it.
The eDiscovery procedure is necessary if your company is required to retrieve sensitive employee data, but also in case of data breaches, cyber crime attacks, or to demonstrate that your procedures are compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation( GDPR ).
As you can imagine, it can affect more structured companies undergoing stringent certifications as well as smaller ones.
How to recover deleted files?
Data recovery officers are people with specific training in computer forensics, but there are platforms, such as Google Workspace or Hycu that have an eDiscovery system to save and archive all data automatically from the moment they are installed.
This way you can retrieve the information you need at any time quickly and securely
By setting the right retention rules for your entire domain, with eDiscovery you can recover almost any type of file such as:
- TEXT DOCUMENTS;
- email;
- spreadsheets;
- presentations;
- images;
- video;
- calendar entries;
- contacts;
- database;
- chat;
- audio file;
- Web pages and websites;
- computer programs.
How to perform an eDiscovery analysis?
Once the data you seek is identified and retrieved, it is stored in an external infrastructure to be preserved, ensuring that the files are not altered.
The data are then tested for authenticity and to search for the source of the problem, whether it is data theft or data deletion from systems.
This phase is critical because it helps you understand what the weak points are within your business system .
Once identified, you can initiate a series of procedures aimed at improving the security of your system to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.
Google Vault to manage enterprise data
If you use Google Workspace then your eDiscovery procedure is really simple. In fact, Google uses a specific tool for recovering your data called Vault. Please note, it is included at no extra cost only in the Business Plus and Enterprise versions of Google Workspace; it must be active for all users to work.
If you use a Starter or Standard version instead, it is possible to purchase additional Vault licenses for certain members of your team, but in this case eDiscovery will only be active for these users.
As a Google Workspace administrator, you can decide which users in your organization can access the Vault service, enabling or disabling it for users in the Administration Console, you can configure the service, and you can decide how to manage data for specific Google Workspace applications.
Vault is web-based and can be used for Gmail Messages, Drive Files, Google Chat messages and logs, Google Meet recordings, Questions and Answers for Google Meet Surveys, Google SMS Group Messages, voice messages with related transcripts, and Google Voice call logs for Google Workspace.
With Google Vault you can store and export all the data you need, not only of active accounts, but also suspended accounts-think staff turnover.
You can also store and search for messages sent to a specific group of people, in a specific time interval, based on the content of the message.
What are the benefits of Google Vault?
The advantages offered by Google Vault are many. You can set specific fixed or indefinite retention rules for certain types of documents before deleting or archiving them, create search criteria to narrow the field even within Organizational Units.
You can also locate what you are looking for via Gmail labels by seeing how it was set up by the user and how he or she applied the various labels, export the data in standard formats for later analysis.
Last but not least you will have access to control reports on the activities performed by users in Vault.
Hycu Protègè, an opportunity even if you use Google Workspace
Do you use Google Workspace, but don't have a Business Plus or Enterprise plan and want to find a cheaper solution? Don't worry, with Google Workspace you can integrate Hycu Protègè that will help you in the eDiscovery process.
Hycu Protègè allows you to securely store your data, with a service that includes several recovery options to prevent any loss or destruction of data important to your business.
With this integration you will be able to protect your workspace from malware and data corruption, save time and resources by choosing which type of solution to adopt , perform backups in less than a minute on all your Google Workspace tools to an external cloud.
Hycu Protegè is designed to be used instantly, which is why it needs no maintenance or upgrades. Your backups happen automatically, and you can be the one to choose how your data is stored. What's more, you will have continuous technical support, with instant troubleshooting.
Whether you are a large company or a small medium-sized enterprise, power2Cloud as a partner of HYCU helps you choose the best solution for you and your budget according to your needs. Choose how to do your eDiscovery in the smartest possible way, without the use of complex procedures, write to us to learn more.
