In my work as an expert witness for email delivery matters, I see many cases where fraud is being alleged. A legal matter often concerns whether an email has been sent, or has been received. One party is usually challenging the provenance of an email that has been sent or received by the other party.
Expert Email Evidence | Cloud Delivery Logs
With cloud-based email systems, email delivery logs are usually present for only a fixed period of time, before being lost. This makes them unavailable for forensic examination, making it harder for an email expert witness to present a clear report. Cloud providers are often reluctant to provide these email transport logs once deleted.
Email Compliance Journal | Expert Evidence Value
For any email system, such scenarios can be prevented by adopting an email compliance archive, or journal. These 3rd party solutions can capture all emails sent and all emails received, and make an envelope copy into immutable storage. The retention period can be set, and is typically 7 years – this is usually dependent on the company legal officer. An example of such as product would be Mimecast.
An email compliance archive usually meets many recognised standards in terms of immutability, and protection from edits. This makes them invaluable as evidence for/against any email delivery claims related to fraud. An email compliance archive will contain envelope copies of all emails typically.
Email compliance archives are not free, but allow an organisation to mitigate any risk of future legal action, whereby there is a claim of fraudulent email delivery.
Example Cases | Importance of an Email Archive
An example of the value of such an email journal archive is the Enron case. And this link: https://qz.com/work/1546565/the-emails-that-brought-down-enron-still-shape-our-daily-lives
There have been many cases whereby email evidence has been deleted from an email system. A compliance email archive can make these emails available for forensic investigation.
A further exampe is the Boeing 737 Max litigation related to the plane’s alleged safety. The litigation process involved a large volume of email evidence, which were likely available due to the presence of a compliance archive, or compliance retention.
Expert Email Witness Help | Email Fraud Investigation
If you need an email expert witness to help you with your email delivery fraud case, then please be in touch today.