How To Make Your eDiscovery Productions Less Hackable

21 April 2022 by Ross eDiscovery security productions
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Takeaway: eDiscovery productions are most vulnerable when you’re sharing them via email. That’s why applications with inbuilt data-sharing options can make your productions much less hackable. Instead of sending the data out over insecure connections, you’re inviting authenticated users in with an access link that you can revoke at any point. And with the best eDiscovery applications, you’re kept up-to-date constantly about the link’s activity.

eDiscovery applications make it easy to create productions. But are these productions secure?

The best eDiscovery applications have production wizards to guide you through the stages of production. So, you’ll choose a production format (native, PDF, TIFF), stamp the files (with Bates numbers, tags, or custom stamps), and redact privileged information (individual words, sentences, or entire pages). And with Cloud eDiscovery, you’ll be doing all this within the protected environment of your eDiscovery software, on Cloud servers with bank-grade security. But while your data might secure up to this point, some vulnerabilities do pop up in the next step.

The real security risk comes when you start sharing your productions. Especially if you email them as attachments.

Cloud eDiscovery applications like GoldFynch let you download your productions as a ZIP file. So, you’d think that sharing these files would be as easy as attaching them to an outbound email. But sharing productions this way brings up a few problems, and here’s why:

1. Attachments can hide viruses.

ZIP files are a great place to hide viruses, which nowadays can send themselves to anyone in your address book. So, it’s often risky to open attachments, even if you know the sender. And, some email clients/apps automatically download attachments, making you even more vulnerable. These sorts of scenarios mean that sending and/or forwarding your productions as ZIP attachments can potentially increase the chances of malware entering your team’s network.

2. Attachment size can complicate sharing.

Emailing larger productions can be frustrating because:

  • Most email services have size limits for attachments, and these official limits don’t always account for the encoding process. For instance, Gmail’s encoding can sometimes double the size of your attachment, reducing the working size limit considerably. And even if you find the rare app without an outgoing limit (e.g., Mozilla Thunderbird), your recipient’s app should have a matching incoming size allowance, too.
  • Your internet speed can slow down your sharing potential. When you email a production, your email vendor uploads all the data to their servers and then reverses the process to download it onto your recipient’s computer. So, your internet bandwidth becomes a critical factor because even the fastest connections will slow down when there’s a lot of traffic. And there are other variables too, like your type of internet connection (hard-wired or wireless?), your storage source (local storage or an external hard drive?), and the transfer service you use (a dedicated large-file transfer app like WeTransfer would work better than many email services).

3. Attachments can mistakenly go to the wrong person.

Emailing is so streamlined that you can attach and send files to multiple recipients with just a few clicks. And this makes it easy to type in (or click) the wrong ‘To:’ or ‘CC:’ address and send a production with privileged information to batches of unintended recipients. Sure, some applications let you ‘unsend’ an email, but only within a short window. Once your time is up, that private information sits on someone else’s servers, ready to be downloaded and shared multiple times.

Thankfully, eDiscovery applications with inbuilt production-sharing features can solve all these problems.

We designed GoldFynch to generate a production access link that you can share with multiple recipients. So instead of sending data out, you invite authenticated users in – a faster, more convenient process that bypasses attachment limits and all the hassles of transferring data.

Most importantly, this makes your productions much less hackable.

Production access links mean that recipients can review your productions within GoldFynch’s secure environment and download them only when absolutely necessary. Also, you can invalidate a shared link at any point, revoking a recipient’s permission to access your production. So, you don’t have to worry about leaking information that’s being emailed back and forth, or about sending a link to the wrong person. And since your productions stay with GoldFynch, there are no mirror copies sitting on random servers, waiting to be downloaded. Plus, you can enable GoldFynch’s multi-factor authentication, forcing users to provide both a password and a verification code sent to their phone.

You’ll want to know when your shared links are successfully delivered or if they bounce. So, GoldFynch will send error notifications to both your GoldFynch dashboard and your registered email address. This way, you can fix the error or re-send the access link. Learn more about sharing-error updates.

But remember, GoldFynch does more than streamline productions. It’s a complete eDiscovery suite.

GoldFynch is an eDiscovery service with a suite of data review tools. And it has other things going for it, too.

  • It costs just $27 a month for a 3 GB case: That’s significantly less than most comparable software. With GoldFynch, you know what you’re paying for exactly – its pricing is simple and readily available on the website.
  • It’s easy to budget for. GoldFynch charges only for storage (processing files is free). So, choose from a range of plans (3 GB to 150+ GB) and know up-front how much you’ll be paying. You can upload and cull as much data as you want, as long as you stay below your storage limit. And even if you do cross the limit, you can upgrade your plan with just a few clicks. Also, billing is prorated – so you’ll pay only for the time you spend on any given plan. With legacy software, pricing is much less predictable.
  • It takes just minutes to get going. GoldFynch runs in the Cloud, so you use it through your web browser (Google Chrome recommended). No installation. No sales calls or emails. Plus, you get a free trial case (0.5 GB of data and a processing cap of 1 GB) without adding a credit card.
  • It’s simple to use. While many eDiscovery applications take hours to master, GoldFynch takes minutes. It handles a lot of complex processing in the background, but what you see is minimal and intuitive. Just drag-and-drop your files into GoldFynch, and you’re good to go. Plus, you get prompt and reliable tech support.
  • Access it from anywhere, and 24/7. All your files are backed up and secure in the Cloud.

Want to find out more about GoldFynch?

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