You must collect full HTML and supporting metadata from the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn, , Salesforce.com and others, O'Connor said. He took it a step further to suggest that, "with this uniquely fragile form of evidence, it is critical to collect the evidence correctly the first time -- there are often no second chances. Additionally, the evidence must be digitally signed as it is being collected, using a technology such as 's keyless signatures, converting trust to proof; proof of the time that the evidence was collected and proof that it had not been tampered with in any way since it was collected." [Also see: ""]

Legal business is all about the evidence and related case matter. Organizations that delay in their development of a good plan surrounding the identification, collection, organization, processing, analysis, production and preservation of information from all relevant sources could find themselves faced with spoliation claims, court sanctions and legal judgments, potentially resulting in huge penalties and even brand destruction.

Fortunately, there are a number of technologies and services available to aid in the eDiscovery process, giving organizations options to help avoid such cases.

Martin is a CISSP and the founder of imsmartin consulting. Write him at sean@imsmartinc.com.

in Network World's Wide Area Network section.