What is eDiscovery?
eDiscovery (electronic discovery) is the legal process of locating, preserving, reviewing, and exchanging Electronically Stored Information (ESI) for use as evidence in litigation, government investigations, or Freedom of Information Act requests.
ESI covers many data sources, including email, chat logs, cloud documents, databases, business apps, social media posts, website content, digital images, and more.
Both sides are legally required to produce relevant ESI during civil or criminal proceedings so that attorneys can analyze it, challenge it, or present it in court. A good eDiscovery hinges on clear preservation steps (legal hold), defensible collection methods, and technology-assisted review to filter huge data volumes quickly and avoid spoliation penalties.
What is an example of eDiscovery?
A financial services firm suffers a ransomware attack that encrypts several file servers and leaks a sample of customer data on a dark web forum. The incident is escalated to legal proceedings within hours because regulators and potential class-action plaintiffs will demand answers.
- Legal hold and scoping. Counsel issues a preservation notice covering the compromised servers, electronic documents, Microsoft 365 email, endpoint EDR logs, firewall traffic, and backups from the preceding 90 days.
- Forensic collection. Investigators image the affected servers and export mailbox data for the IT administrator whose credentials were misused. They also pull telemetry and VPN logs to trace initial access.
- Processing and culling. 6 TB of raw data collection is de-duplicated, system-file filtered, and keyword-searched (“.lock extension,” “decrypt key,” “BTC address”), reducing the review set to 120 GB.
- Review and analysis. Attorneys and cyber-forensic analysts tag documents that show when encryption began, which customer files were exfiltrated, and whether any privileged communications are protected during the review process. Timeline analysis links a suspicious remote desktop session to the exact minute the ransomware executable launched.
- Production. The firm packages relevant log excerpts, email threads, and a forensic chain-of-custody report in native format with hash values to prove integrity for law enforcement, regulators, and cyber-insurance adjusters.
- Presentation. During regulatory hearings, counsel displays a visual timeline of attacker activity (compiled from the processed logs) alongside restored sample files to demonstrate prompt detection and response.
What is the purpose of eDiscovery?
eDiscovery tools exists to locate and preserve electronic evidence like emails, chat logs, cloud files, and database exports, so it can stand up in court or satisfy a regulatory subpoena. Three drivers make it essential:
1. Legal Duty
The moment a lawsuit or investigation is imminent, organizations must place a “legal hold” on relevant data. Courts expect evidence to be preserved in its original form; failure to do so can trigger fines, sanctions, or adverse jury instructions.
2. Business risk and cost control
Early, defensible eDiscovery workflows (apparent custodians, repeatable collection methods, technology-assisted review) shrink the volume of material lawyers must read. Fewer relevant documents mean shorter timelines and lower outside-counsel fees, like direct savings that show up on the balance sheet.
3. Data-privacy compliance
Regulations like GDPR and CCPA limit how personal data can be processed and transferred. eDiscovery teams must thread the needle, producing what the court requires while redacting or segregating personal information to stay on the right side of data security and privacy law.
How does E-Discovery work?
eDiscovery solutions is a structured workflow that turns sprawling digital data into courtroom-ready evidence for civil procedures. Below is a deeper look at each phase and why it matters.
Here’s how they work:
1. Information Governance (IG)
Long before litigation starts, you need to create an Information Governance programme. This includes policies, retention schedules, and security controls that say what data is kept, where it lives, and how long it stays.
Frameworks like the IGRM model help legal, IT, cybersecurity, and business owners stay on the same page. When a lawsuit arrives, the team already knows which systems hold potentially relevant data and which can be defensibly purged.
For example, a three-year retention policy on Zoom call recordings lets Legal know exactly which meetings will still exist if litigation arises in 2027.
2. Identification
As soon as litigation is “reasonably anticipated,” counsel must preserve evidence. The identification phase pinpoints the relevant evidence.
Legal and IT teams interview custodians, map the amount of data flows, and trace communications across email, cloud shares, mobile devices, SaaS platforms, and legacy archives. Solid scoping here prevents over-collection later, saving both time and review costs.
For example, interviews reveal that a key marketing decision was debated in a private Slack channel called #proj-launch.
3. Preservation
Once relevant data sources are defined, a formal legal-hold notice freezes them. Custodians receive clear instructions not to delete or alter files, while IT disables autodeletion policies and backs up volatile storage (e.g., cloud chat logs).
Proper preservation guards against spoliation sanctions and maintains crucial metadata that prove authenticity, such as timestamps, authorship, and file hashes.
For example, the cloud admin exports AWS CloudTrail logs to immutable storage the same day a subpoena arrives.
4. Collection
Forensic tools export data from preserved sources without changing file attributes during collection. Chain-of-custody logs document who handled each item, when, and how.
Collections that respect metadata and use validated methods stand up to courtroom scrutiny; shortcuts risk evidentiary challenges or exclusion.
For example, an examiner images the VP’s laptop and captures a BitLocker key so the drive can be decrypted in a lab without altering file dates.
5. Processing
Raw collections, like duplicates, system files, and irrelevant content, that inflate volumes, are messy. Processing software de-duplicates identical items, de-NISTs system files, extracts text, and applies culling based on date ranges, custodians, and keywords. The goal is to shrink digital information from terabytes to gigabytes so attorneys review only what could matter.
6. Review
During review, attorneys (often assisted by artificial intelligence and predictive coding) assess each document for relevance, privilege, or confidentiality.
Technology-assisted review accelerates this labour-intensive step, reducing human error and outside-counsel spend while flagging privileged content for redaction.
7. Analysis
Analysts connect the dots with the noise filtered out, timeline reconstruction, communication pattern analysis, and sentiment scoring, so counsel can see who knew what and when. Strong analysis surfaces gaps in the story, highlights key custodians, and informs deposition strategy.
8. Production
Responsive, non-privileged files are converted to agreed-upon formats (TIFF/PDF with load files), Bates-stamped, and shared with opposing counsel or regulators.
For example, 1,220 emails and six Excel sheets are produced as searchable PDFs with linked metadata so both sides can run full-text queries.
9. Presentation
Finally, evidence becomes exhibits. Trial teams use presentation platforms to display emails, chat snippets, or spreadsheets in a coherent narrative for judges, juries, and arbitrators.
A good presentation ensures the months-long eDiscovery process delivers its ultimate purpose: persuasive, admissible evidence supporting the legal argument.
For example, counsel displays a Slack thread with an email to show inconsistent statements, persuading the jury within minutes.
Why do some organizations struggle with eDiscovery?
eDiscovery headaches usually stem from unmanaged large volumes of data growth, rising legal counsel expectations, reactive planning, and dispersed sensitive information. Here are some reasons why:
1. Too much information
A single lawsuit can cover years of email threads, Teams meetings, Slack archives, cloud file versions, and mobile phone backups. Terabytes pour out of live systems and long-forgotten backups, and every gigabyte costs money to process and review.
Unless the organization knows exactly which repositories hold business records and has retention rules that purge actual junk, the legal team drowns in volume before the first keyword search runs.
For example, a marketing Slack workspace retained by default keeps every GIF, reaction emoji, and sales funnel screenshot from 2018 onward. However, pulling it all for one legal case balloons the review set by tens of thousands of irrelevant text messages.
2. Expectation creep
Thirty years ago, discovery meant bankers’ boxes of paper. Courts now assume anything digital can be produced quickly and in native format. That shift is from “show us what you have” to “you must have it, and you must deliver it fast,” catches many organizations off guard.
What was once a back-room scanning project is now a forensic, timestamp-sensitive export that must withstand technical cross-examination.
3. The “Break-Glass” mind-set
Too many companies treat eDiscovery like a fire alarm: ignored until smoke fills the hallway. Policies are vague, legal-hold software is unconfigured, and key custodians have never been briefed on preservation duties.
When a regulator or plaintiff appears, IT and Legal scramble to freeze mailboxes, halt deletion jobs, and hunt for electronic data on personal devices, often under severe time pressure and with an incomplete audit trail.
4. Scattered and shadow data
Relevant information rarely lives in one tidy repository. Some paper documents are on network shares, some in OneDrive, some in employees’ WhatsApp threads, and others in cloud SaaS platforms that Legal didn’t even know existed.
Without clear rules, “company business stays on company systems,” and “all project chat happens in the approved platform,” custodians hold fragments everywhere.
Identifying, preserving, and collecting across that patchwork becomes a logistical puzzle, increasing both cost and risk of missed evidence.
Common Types of Electronically Stored Information in eDiscovery
- Email and attachments (desktop clients, cloud mail, archives / PST files)
- Chat and instant-messaging logs (Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, SMS, WhatsApp)
- Office documents (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDFs, digital files)
- Structured data (relational‐database exports, CRM/ERP tables, spreadsheets generated from BI platforms)
- Social-media content (posts, comments, direct messages, electronic information from LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok)
- Web content and HTML captures (website pages, blogs, intranet portals, Wayback snapshots)
- Digital images and graphics (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, design files, screenshots)
- Audio and video files (VoIP call recordings, Zoom/Teams meeting recordings, CCTV footage, voicemail)
- Mobile-device data (texts, app data, call logs, photos, geo-location history)
- System and application logs (server logs, firewalls, IDS/IPS alerts, CloudTrail, SIEM exports)
- Calendar and contact records (Outlook, Google Workspace, mobile sync)
- Source code and software repositories (Git commits, version histories, build artifacts)
- Cloud-storage artifacts (files in OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, including version metadata)
- Backups and archives (tape images, snapshot backups, email archives)
- Machine/IoT data (sensor logs, industrial control system records, telemetry)
- Metadata attached to any of the above (timestamps, authorship, geotags, hash values, permissions)
Is eDiscovery a part of the digital investigation process?
Yes, eDiscovery is part of the digital forensics and investigation process and is primarily associated with identifying, collecting, and presenting the most relevant digital evidence to increase the chances of success for the concerned party.
It fits into the broader forensics and incident response process, which determines the scope of a crime, extracts data that can act as a testament, and takes preventative steps to prevent incidents from happening in the future.
The digital forensic process is mainly conducted to obtain hidden, unretrievable, or deleted data, while the scope of eDiscovery is limited to the available data. Therefore, through forensics, the analysts preserve all the relevant data to present it as concrete evidence later.
Group-IB delivers full-cycle eDiscovery as part of its digital forensics practice
E-discovery rarely grabs attention until a subpoena lands on the desk; then it turns into a live investigation with the clock ticking. Internal teams may handle routine IT incidents, but tracking down evidence of a privacy breach or digital break-in is a different game.
Even when the culprit is identified, prosecutors still need defensible proof: preserved metadata, chain-of-custody logs, and expert testimony that links artefacts to the attacker beyond doubt.When litigation, regulatory action, or an internal investigation demands electronically stored information, Group-IB’s forensics team steps in with a repeatable, court-approved workflow:
- Forensic-grade preservation and collection. Proprietary toolkits and a laboratory recognised by courts worldwide ensure data is imaged or exported without altering timestamps or hashes, maintaining an unbroken chain of custody.
- Rapid restoration and reconstruction. Analysts recover deleted or damaged artefacts (email, chat, mobile, cloud, CCTV, system logs) so counsel sees the whole picture, not just what attackers left behind.
- Targeted processing and review support. Advanced filtering, de-duplication, and timeline building shrink data volumes and surface key evidence quickly, cutting outside-counsel spend.
- Expert reporting and testimony. Investigators translate technical findings into clear, defensible reports and can appear as expert witnesses when required.
- Business-as-usual assurance. Collections are performed with minimal disruption to live systems, and any ancillary security gaps discovered are remediated on the fly.
Learn more about our eDiscovery services.