What Is Electronic Information, and Why Should You Care? - Electronically Stored Information - page 46

both. legitimate. and. relevant.. Proving. a. paper. document. to.
be.legitimate.is.a.matter.of.proving.it.was.not.altered.after.the.
fact.and.that.it.says.what.you.are.suggesting.it.says.in.a.cor-
rect.and.understandable.way.
Think. about. how. that. is. different. when. you. are. talking.
about.electronic.evidence.
Almost.everything.we.do.is.now.recorded.electronically..
The.irst.big.difference.between.ESI.and.evidence.in.the.past.
is.the.sheer.volume.of.data.
In. the. past,. a. large. and. complicated. case. might. require.
boxes.and.boxes.of.documentation.that.the.poor.paralegals.
would. have. to. work. their. way. through. to. ind. the. relevant.
and.important.evidence..But.now.with.electronic.data.being.
accepted. as. evidence,. the. quantity. of. documents. or. other.
types.of.evidence,.even.for.the.simplest.cases,.is.often.orders.
of.magnitude.greater..If.you.had.to.store.it.in.boxes,.it.would.
ill.thousands.of.acres.of.warehouses.
It. is. said. that. currently. every. one. of. us. generates. giga-
bytes. of. data. every. day,. and. that. number. continues. to. rise.
exponentially.(for.an.explanation.of.gigabytes.and.other.large.
increments.of.electronic.data,.see.Chapter.3).
Given. that. exponential. growth. in. electronic. data. world-
wide,.we.can.assume.that.the.quantity.of.electronic.evidence.
will.continue.to.grow,.and.that.is.one.of.the.most.important.
and.relevant.problems.we.all.have.to.deal.with.when.working.
with.ESI.(Figure 1.7).
Another.big.difference.is.in.the.data..Electronic.data.by.its.
nature. is. dynamic.. It. can. be. changed. in. nonapparent. ways.
by.the.simple.action.of.accessing.it,.viewing.it,.or.moving.it..
That.nonapparent.information.that.can.become.part.of.elec-
tronic. data. is. called. metadata.. We. will. have. a. much. longer.
and.detailed.look.at.metadata.later.because.it.can.be.hugely.
important.to.understanding.electronic.evidence.
This. dynamism. also. creates. problems. with. integrity. of.
electronic. data.. It. is. relatively. easy. to. manipulate. electronic.
data.to.make.it.seem.to.relect.a.different.reality.than.it.might.