Published on Apr 8, 2020 Innovative Driven is well prepared for this very situation. Several years ago, the forensics experts at ID started offering remote forensic collection services in lieu of traditional boots-on-the-ground collections. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, over 80% of our collections were performed remotely.
This increase can be mostly attributed to the time and cost savings of collecting data remotely. Remote forensic collections provide the same level of defensibility as onsite collections, without the added time and cost of travel. It’s a no brainer!
A typical remote collection starts with one of our forensics experts shipping a remote collection kit to you. The remote kit contains all of the same tools that we use when we’re onsite. On the day of your scheduled collection, we will walk you through the process of connecting the target devices to the remote kit, which usually takes just minutes. Our forensic expert will initiate a remote connection to start the collection process, which usually takes a few hours. Once the collection is complete, simply box up the devices and use the pre-paid shipping label to return the kit and data.
The other factor contributing to the rapid increase in remote collections is cloud-based data sources. Almost every organization has some data stored in a cloud repository, so whether collections happen local or remotely from those repositories, location has little impact.
Most cloud-based repositories were designed with data ingress and access in mind. They make it easy to upload and create data, from many sources, and provide access from anywhere – that’s how they become “sticky”. The real problem is that these cloud-based repositories weren’t designed with data egress in mind, so eDiscovery and data collection can be challenging. Collecting from these repositories requires specialized tools and specialized skills set in order to defensibly collect data.
