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New Federal Ruling May Require Companies To Store All E-mails And Other Electronic Communications

(Disclaimer: Tech Experts is a great IT service and repair company…. But, we’re not attorneys. All of our recommendations are related to products and technology. The following article is meant to provide you with a broad overview of the issue at hand. By no means, should you rely on this article as final legal advice. For that, we suggest you contact your attorney. Portions of this article are adapted from a whitepaper published by Inboxer.)

There has been much news coverage lately about a new federal court ruling concerning email, electronic communication, and electronic document retention. IT managers, business owners and legal professionals are asking us every day: Do we really need to archive everything?

The short answer is maybe.

This entire issue centers upon an entity’s ability to produce “electronic communications” in the event of a lawsuit, other civil proceeding, or criminal action. Current regulations and generally accepted court rules don’t specify what you have to keep; rather, they specify what you have to produce (and how quickly) if you’re a party in a legal proceeding.

And that presents a huge complication. Do you simply store a copy of everything, for ever? Or do you selectively pick and choose what you think may be important in the future? Storing everything would take tremendous amounts of space, so selective storage sounds best at first. The hard part with selective storage is in knowing what might be important one, two or five years in the future.

The good news is that cost of magnetic storage has been declining at a rate of 45% per year since 1989. The cost of a terabyte of data, enough storage for 2000 scanned file cabinets, is expected to drop from $420 in 2005 to just $70 in 2008, according to Berghell Associates.

What do you need to save?
Requirements vary by industry, geography, and company type. Your attorney is probably aware of all of the requirements for your company. Here is a sample of mandated requirements:

  •  Sarbanes-Oxley requires accounting firms to keep records for seven years after an audit.
  •  HIPAA requires health care organizations to keep patient data for six years.
  •  Brokerage trading account records must be kept for six years after the account terminates.
  •  Medical records may need to be kept for two years after a patient’s death.

Regulatory Requirements
The first obligation of any electronic communication or document retention schedule is to preserve items as required by government agencies.

The new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure protect companies when they delete electronic records as part of “routine, good-faith operation.” Unfortunately, the phrase “routine, good-faith operation” is not defined. The authoritative Advisory Committee on Civil Rules said that an entity would usually be protected if it took “reasonable steps to preserve the information after it knew or should have known the information was discoverable.”

Clearly, the advice indicates that companies are not protected just because they follow a regular retention schedule. The length of the retention period must consider the relevant statutes of limitation and company contracts.

For example, Louis Testa, a truck driver for a fish wholesaler, unloaded a shipment at a New Hampshire Wal-Mart store. Testa slipped on some ice and snow that covered the dock ramp. He complained to a Wal-Mart employee on the dock at the time, but Testa did not take action for more than two years.

Wal-Mart routinely destroyed its records on the event in accordance with its two-year retention plan. However, the New Hampshire’s statute of limitations on personal injury was three years.

Testa filed suit after two years had passed. Wal-Mart could not produce evidence that it said included instructions sent to vendors informing them not to deliver merchandise that day. Wal-Mart lost the case (Testa v. Wal-Mart Stores). Wal-Mart had an obligation to keep messages as long as a suit could have been filed. If the retention policy had been three years for business-related documents or for ones where a complaint was made, there would not have been a problem.

Using the same logic, companies should identify the length of any contracts that might be contested in a court case. Emails may explain what was intended when the contract was written.

The issue is that deleting messages or electronic records may mean that you do not have access to evidence in a timely way and that any related messages that you could use for defense are not available.

It is a good idea to review the lengths of any key contracts and the statutes of limitation where you do business. It may be possible to delete messages after the time period expires.

Conclusion
Companies need to decide how much effort they want to put into managing retention. They can archive email forever, keep messages for the longest mandated retention period or statute-of-limitations time, or analyze each message and apply the appropriate time period.

  1. Work with your legal counsel and be sure to keep the following in mind:
  2. Preserve email and electronic records as required by government agencies for compliance review or for other regulatory and statutory reasons.
  3. Maintain messages for the time period of any statutes of limitation or contract period.
  4. Minimize storage and legal costs by minimizing the documents to be reviewed by legal teams: (1) spam, (2) duplicate messages, (3) system notices, and (4) personal mail.
  5. Deploy systems that pre-categorize and pre-index messages to reduce legal costs.

The “Legaleze:” Summary of Rules 26, 34 & 37
Rules 26 and 34 define what constitutes electronically stored information and requires early conference between parties during which information systems and data locations must be detailed.

Under this rule, a responding party should produce electronically stored information that is relevant, not privileged and reasonably accessible.

A party need not provide discovery of electronically stored information that the party identifies as not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or cost.

Nonetheless the court may decide to order discovery from such sources if the requesting party shows good cause.

Rule 34 confirms that discovery of electronically stored information stands on equal footing with discovery of paper documents.

Rule 34 permits the requesting party to designate the form or forms in which it wants electronically stored information produced.

The rule recognizes that different forms of production may be appropriate for different types of electronically stored information.

The rule therefore provides that the requesting party may ask for different forms of production for different types of electronically stored information.

Rule 37 specifies when a party is permitted to dispose of electronically stored information by exploiting routine operation of an information system and when a party is under a duty to preserve information because of pending or reasonably anticipated litigation – “Litigation Hold”.

The complete description of rules governing discovery of electronically stored information and committee notes may be accessed by visiting the following link:
http://www.uscourts.gov/rules/EDiscovery_w_Notes.pdf

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Alphabetizing your Start Menu

If you’re like most Windows users, you’ve probably installed many programs…. So many, in fact, that you can have trouble finding the program you’re trying to use in the Start Menu list. New programs are loaded at the end of the list. Here’s how to alphabetize your Start Menu list of programs:

  1. First click on the Start button.
  2. Move your mouse to “All Programs.”
  3. Move your mouse to any of the folders there.
  4. Right click.
  5. A box will open up. Scroll to “Sort By Names” and click.

All of the folders and programs will be alphabetized. This is one of those simple but useful tips that will help you organize your computer.

Windows XP On Screen Keyboard

This might seem like a silly tip or even a silly function, but we’ve already found a use for it once. Windows XP comes with a built in on screen keyboard. Basically a graphic of a keyboard comes up and acts like your keyboard, you can use your mouse to hunt and peck around.

What uses does this have? Well, it’s good for people with disabilities, where it would be easier to use a mouse than trying to type or it’s great to use if your keyboard goes crazy.

Here is how you launch it:

  1. Go to start
  2. Go to run and type OSK, then press ENTER

Then the keyboard comes on. It’s just that simple! It’s best to make a desktop icon for it or a shortcut, because if your keyboard should malfunction, it would be handy to have it.

All you do to create the shortcut is to:

  1. Right click on the desktop
  2. Click the new shortcut button
  3. Type osk, click next twice

Chrysler Expands IPod Integration

Mopar, DaimlerChrysler’s original equipment manufacturer, announced it has expanded availability of its factory engineered IPod integration kits for most Chrysler Group vehicles.

The kit provides direct connectivity between the customer’s IPod and the vehicle’s audio sound system, attaching to a cable port in the vehicle glove box.

The adaptor module is concealed under the vehicle dash, translating and then sending the signal to the vehicle’s radio receiver.

Once attached, all IPod control functions are available through the vehicle’s audio sound system. The kits range from $139 to $215. More at www.mopar.com.

Tech Experts Now Authorized To Sell, Install And Service ESI’s IP-Enabled Telephone Systems

Tech Experts recently became a factory authorized dealer for the ESI line of advanced communications business telephone systems. The ESI product line fits very nicely with our IT and computer services.

ESI telephone systems offer many features small and medium sized companies will find useful, but our primary motivation in taking on this product line was ESI’s converged voice and data platform. This is the future of business communications, and we’re excited to work with a company that is in the forefront of that technology.

What does “converged voice and data” mean? Simply, it is the combining of your data services, such as e-mail and Internet access, with your voice services, like voice mail, remote telephones and branch offices.

Here are some examples of how this system would work with your data infrastructure:

Remote telephones: Through the ESI telephone system, you can “Internet-enable” your phone system through a very secure VPN. You would then take a system feature telephone (just like the one that sits on your desk at the office) home, plug it into your high speed cable or DSL Internet at home, and the phone will connect to the office telephone system.

You have 100% of the features, services and extension capabilities at home, just as if you were sitting at your desk. This is perfect for taking orders at home, or for spending time working from home.

ESI-Link branch offices: If your business has multiple locations, you can connect ESI telephone systems together through the Internet – eliminating long distance charges between offices, or expensive tie-lines.

The systems interoperate as one unified system.

Unified Messaging: Receive your voice mails through email. This lets you forward them to others, keep copies on your computer for future reference, reply through e-mail, etc. This is a very cool feature.

Of course, the system offers a ton of other features any business would find useful. Take a quick look through these built-in features. How many would help your business?

Live call recording: With the touch of a button, record a conversation, conference call or personal reminder memo for later playback, as well as moving or copying to others’ mailboxes.

Perfect for making sure orders are correct.

Scalability: ESI Phone systems grow with your business. Most systems use the same telephones. As your business grows, you add to – not replace – your ESI telephone system.

Auto Attendant: Perfect for over flow call situations, or for a busy office. Provides extensive call routing, including directories, automatic day/night operation, off-premises transfer, pager notification and more.

Automatic Call Distribution: If you have a busy service or sales department, this is the feature for you. ACD places sales or service personnel in departments and either (a.) routes a call to the longest-idle agent or (b.) places the call on hold if all agents are busy and then immediately connects when the first agent is available. Constantly updates Feature Phone display regarding queues and wait times.

Voice Mail Delivery: You can program the system to call your cell phone when you have a voice mail, saving you from having to call in and check your voice mail.

Enhanced Caller ID: Lets you see who’s calling, screen calls going to your voice mail, and return calls with a single key press.

Verbal Help and Verbal User Guide: This is the most unique feature of any telephone system we’ve seen. A full, spoken tutorial is available at any time, as well as feature by feature help. No more looking at programming books!

These are just some of the interesting highlights. The system supports most all features you’d find on a business telephone system, at an affordable price. If you’ve been considering a new business telephone system, we’d appreciate the opportunity to talk with you about the ESI systems and how they can help your business grow.

Data Security And Theft Top IT Concerns For 2006, Continuing Into 2007

The number of personal records exposed in data security breaches surpassed 100 million this year.

So says the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, which has been keeping count ever since a high-profile data leak at information broker ChoicePoint in early 2005. It keeps track of thefts and losses of gear such as laptops, storage tapes and drives, as well as of hacking incidents and insiders who leak data.

The count climbed throughout 2006: Boeing, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Hewlett-Packard, McAfee, the University of California, and many others made headlines as a result of breaches.

Most incidents come to light because of laws requiring public notification of data loss in cases where data is unencrypted. In response, security companies are increasingly pitching encryption products for secure storage–for example, Seagate Technology is building it into its drives. Microsoft is also getting into the game: business versions of Windows Vista have a full-disk encryption feature called BitLocker.

But encryption technology still lacks usability, a panel of industry experts said at an event celebrating the 30-year anniversary of cryptography.

Meanwhile, banks and credit agencies are hawking credit-monitoring services. In September, researchers named several banks as a consumer’s best bet in terms of offering protection against identity theft.

Breaches are only one way people’s identities can be compromised. Phishing scams are getting more widespread, and fraudsters are getting trickier in their attempts to con Internet users. People with high incomes attract more phishing e-mails and lose more money to them than other Internet users, according to a November Gartner report.

Scammers are helped by an apparent influx of cross-site-scripting bugs. These Web security flaws could let attackers craft a URL that looks like it points to a trusted site, but serves up content from a third, potentially malicious site. This year, this type of bug was found in many popular Web sites and in Google’s search appliances.

Phishing shields are now common. Microsoft has built one into its latest browser, IE 7, and Mozilla offers a similar feature in Firefox 2.

Alternative approaches to combat phishing include a new DNS service, OpenDNS, whose free address-lookup service blocks phishing sites and other threats.

Yahoo added an antiphishing feature to its site that displays a custom image on the log-in screen to verify that it is indeed a Yahoo page.

But if confidential data isn’t exposed through data breaches or pilfered through a phishing scam, there’s still malicious software. Criminals are crafting more-targeted Trojan horse attacks that seek to sneak onto PCs through zero-day flaws, experts have warned. In addition, some malicious software is now designed to let cybercrooks surf into online banks with you to steal your money.

You could also be exposed while on the go. Privacy watchers warn that people carrying passports equipped with radio chips could have the information in the document read from a distance. The solution: keep the passport closed and in a foil bag.
— from CNET News Service

Parents More Worried About TV Time Than Children’s Internet Use

About 80 percent of children responding to a recent survey said the Internet is important for schoolwork, although three-quarters of the parents said their kids’ grades hadn’t gone up or down since they got Internet access.

Forty-seven percent of the adults said they have withheld Internet use as a form of punishment. Banning television is still more popular, though.

One in five American parents believe their kids are spending too much time on the Internet, though most say the online activities haven’t affected grades either way. In a study by the University of Southern California’s (USC) Center for a Digital Future, 21 percent of adult Internet users with children believe the kids are online too long, compared with 11 percent in 2000. Still, that’s less than the 49 percent who complain their kids watch too much TV.

Internet Use Peaking
The study, meanwhile, found that although only 27 percent of cell phone owners use them for text messaging, photo transmitting and other non-voice functions, the figure grows to 54 percent among those 18- to 24 years old and 45 percent among those under 18.

The study has been conducted most years since 2000. Over that time, researchers have seen Internet use grow to 78 percent from 67 percent. Access at home increased to 68 percent from 47 percent.

Net Dropouts
In one of the few surveys to look at why people are offline, the study found the lack of a working computer most often to blame. Of the 22 percent of Americans who do not currently use the Internet, more than a quarter are former users who dropped out.

“Almost nobody drops out out of dissatisfaction,” said Jeffrey Cole, director of USC’s Center for the Digital Future. “The reason most people drop off is they change jobs or their computer breaks.”

However, more than half the former users have no intention of returning online — the most ever. Overall, 60 percent of nonusers have no plans to go online within the next year.

Cole said the numbers raise the prospect of a permanent subclass of nonusers. “Internet penetration has largely plateaued,” he said.

Elderly Are Least Connected
Americans 66 years old and over remain the most disconnected, with only 38 percent online. For all other age groups, at least 74 percent are online, with penetration hitting 99 percent for those 18 and under, likely because most U.S. schools now have some form of publicly-usable Internet access.

On average, users spend 14 hours a week online, compared with 9.4 hours in 2000.

Thirty-seven percent of home Internet users still have dial-up accounts, compared with 26 percent for high-speed cable modems and 24 percent for DSL. Eleven percent of Internet users go online through mobile devices – not necessarily exclusively – averaging two hours a week.

Internet vs. Television
The study revealed little change in the effect on television. Thirty-six percent of home Internet users say they have spent less time watching TV since they started using the Internet, roughly the same as the 33 percent who said that in a 2001 survey.

Cole said the increased use of high-speed connections has a lot to do with that.

When people were on dial-up, they were accessing the Internet 20 or 30 minutes at a time – “generally time not spent watching television,” Cole said. “Broadband changed all that. They are on 30, 40, 50 times a day for two or three minutes at a time. It’s not a big bucket of time displacing television.”

People may be paying less attention to television commercials, though, fitting in online use during program breaks, he said.

That said, 41 percent of veteran users – those online for more than nine years – say they have spent less time watching television, compared with only 23 percent among those who have joined the Internet within the year.

The study found nearly a quarter of online users – especially newcomers to the Internet – say they spend less time reading.

The telephone survey of 2,269 U.S. households was conducted in English and Spanish from February to April and included follow-up interviews with respondents to previous USC studies.

The study has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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What You Need To Know When Considering Windows Vista Options

It’s official! Windows Vista will hit the shelves in early 2007.

You’ve probably already heard plenty of details about this new version of Windows. As with past Windows releases, the question for small- and medium-size businesses isn’t if they’ll upgrade, it’s when.

Here are some things to think about as you consider your upgrade options.

What You Get with Windows Vista
Windows Vista includes a multitude of new features, and this list isn’t meant to be exhaustive. These are some of the items that should be high on your business’s priority list:

Improved Security: Vista includes Microsoft Defender (antispyware) and Internet Explorer 7 (which includes a phishing filter and antispoofing technology), as well as Microsoft Windows Firewall technology—all essential for maintaining your technology infrastructure.

Improved Software Setup and Maintenance: Vista enables you to create and store “images,” which are system software configurations that can be easily replicated on new PCs. That means the average time to set up a new PC will be reduced, and upgrading software on existing PCs will be a snap. Add those together and you get a reduction in IT costs.

Instant Search: Search is the name of the game for document-heavy companies. This function should make it easier for you and your employees to find files and documents in a data-intensive environment.

Windows Aero: The new graphical user interface is fast and looks very slick.

Here’s a fair warning on Windows Aero: In order to use this feature, you will need to make sure that your computing hardware is “Vista Premium Ready,” as opposed to “Vista Capable.”

The difference between the two will be most striking in the graphical interface: Vista on a Vista Capable machine will look more like Windows 2000, but the hardware requirements for it will be significantly less than for Vista Premium Ready. Chances are that equipment you have purchased in the last two years will be Vista Capable. It’s also likely that very little of your current equipment is going to be Vista Premium Ready unless you’ve already been buying higher-end gear.

Microsoft will offer business-class versions of Vista, giving you the choice of which mode you want to operate in. Be sure to match the hardware, software version, and mode to the features you want in your Vista upgrade.

Different Windows Vista Versions
Microsoft will be marketing multiple versions of Windows Vista: two versions for home use, a business and an enterprise version, and an “ultimate” edition. Most small and medium businesses are likely to opt for the business version. It’s not clear yet whether the business version will come in Vista Capable or Vista Premium Ready packaging. This is important because Vista Capable hardware does not require a DVD drive, but Vista Premium Ready does.
When to Get Windows Vista

Don’t be confused by the fact that Office 2007 is going to be coming out at just about the same time as Vista. The two releases are unrelated: You can upgrade to Office 2007 in your current environment—you don’t need to move to Vista to use the newest version of Office.

Before you take the Vista plunge, think about these three issues:

First, if you’re running an older or unsupported version of Windows, we highly recommend that you think about upgrading as soon as possible.

Second, understand how your current software will operate in a Vista environment. Microsoft has tools available to assist you here, and it’s important to use them to test all your applications and ensure that they can run in Vista before you make your move.

This puts a real premium on not only knowing what applications your business runs on a “authorized” basis, but also what software some of your users may have loaded on their own in order to perform day-to-day tasks. Depending on the nature of your business, this practice may be more common than you think.

Third, and probably most important, you need to understand your hardware environment and your plans for upgrading your hardware infrastructure. We’ve already mentioned the issue regarding DVD drives, but you also need to examine processor speed, memory, hard drive space and graphics cards in light of any plans you have to move to Vista.

Most equipment purchased in the past couple years should be able to support Vista in the Vista Capable mode.

Your Bottom Line
While every small and medium business starts in a different place, here’s our recommendation as to how you approach the Vista-upgrade issue:

Don’t buy Vista the day it becomes available, but don’t wait more than a year to get started.

Time your decision to be in line with any hardware purchasing pattern you’ve already established.

Decide now how important Vista Premium Ready features are to your business, and make any incremental hardware purchase decisions consistent with either these or the Vista Capable requirements.

Analyze some of the new hardware/chip features that provide improved performance and reduce IT costs and match that plan up with whatever conclusion you’ve reached on Vista.

Give yourself a good six months to determine software compatibility with Vista before you begin the migration.

If this sounds confusing or you just plain need help, give us a call. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, our staff is trained to provide you with the guidance you need to evaluate Windows Vista in your organization.