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face="Times New Roman, serif">In
the new e-world much of the information in public and private
corporations and government is maintained in electronic mode.
Litigation and forensic investigations now to a great extent depends
on computer forensic and e-discovery. On the hindsight,
color="#333333">if
businesses have a sound e-discovery mechanism many financial frauds
can be anticipated and prevented before they occur, say computer
forensic experts. Experts were in the city to participate in a
three-day international conference on Computer Forensics and
e-Discovery organized by BDO, the world's fifth largest global
public accountancy network. The conference kick started on September
21.
color="#000000">Electronic
discovery
or e-discovery refers to a process in which electronic
information is sought and searched
with the intention of using it as evidence in a legal case, for
corporate management, response
management, cyber security and so on. E-discovery also holds an edge
is in the fact that it can
be used as an effective measure to prevent frauds from being
committed by timely detection of suspicious
activities. Surprisingly though, despite the significance of this
field, e-discovery in India
is yet to catch the attention of companies, individuals or even law
firms. In several countries abroad,
e-discovery
is already a mainstream practice for attorneys.
color="#000000">Points
like
these came to the fore during the three-day BDO 6th Annual
Computer Forensics and E-discovery conference held by BDO at Delhi
that kick-started on September 21. The BDO
style="font-weight: normal;">international
conference on Computer Forensic and e-discovery solutions focuses on
emerging areas like IP theft, capturing of potential evidence,
Mobile forensics, and use of artificial intelligence and link
analysis which is considered as the future of digital forensics. “
face="Times New Roman, serif">Key
employees on the exit path represent the single biggest threat to
businesses especially with respect
to IP thefts. Today business is transacted on smart phones which are
portable offices and it is
time that companies start using latest tools like mobile forensics to
build safeguards against fraud
risks like IP theft” said
Huzeifa Unwala, National Head, Risk Advisory Services, BDO India.
face="Times New Roman, serif">Electronic
data can be stored in a variety of places including personal and
office computers, BlackBerry
phones, video and surveillance cameras, and even cell-phones. Such
data including electronic
information, emails, databases, spreadsheets, images, history of
websites etc can be a valuable
source of information. BDO has developed capabilities to create
'tamperproof' digital images
which are admissible as evidence in Court. This is done according to
strict protocols. “
size="3">Regulation
and Litigation are becoming more common-place and increasingly
onerous around the world.
Harnessing emerging technologies to facilitate fast, accurate,
efficient — and therefore lower cost
- investigations is key to ensuring that organisations can satisfy
their statutory, regulatory and legal
requirements” said William
Wilkinson, Head of Technology Forensic, BDO UK.
face="Times New Roman, serif">The
BDO global teams often collaborate with lawyers and fraud
investigation teams where experienced
team members use state-of-the-art IT tools that enable tracking down
electronic evidence
— even after it has been deleted. BDO
Forensic experts use technology in a variety of other ways using data
mining to identify unusual
trends and transactions or capturing electronic data and digitising
hard-copy documents to comply
with disclosure orders. This enables businesses to remotely search
and access documents more
efficiently without the need for investing in expensive technology. The
experts at the conference suggested that it is possible that soon
electronic discovery will become
the norm in India as it has around the world, and multi-national
companies involved in complex
litigation will likely lead the charge.