It is a certainty that backups can be evidence, though the jurisprudence,
at least in the US, the last 15 years or so has moved significantly in the
direction of backups being considered inaccessible absent a specific reason
to make them so (such as operational access to them to recover
inadvertently deleted information). And I am not a lawyer, nor do I work
for the federal or any government. But most organizations keep backups for
the absolute minimum periods required for disaster recovery and business
continuity, or should anyway, meaning that conflating them with records
would seem to open up some very uncomfortable discussions and avenues of
inquiry.

The Oliver North case was an attempt to destroy evidence, so going to the
backup tapes made some sense. Same with many of the email-related landmark
cases like Zubulake and Coleman v. Morgan Stanley. But those involved bad
actors, not the court looking to backups as just another records
repository.

Were I still a consultant, and I still do advise this as an ERM trainer, I
would advise that backups are backups and to be retained as long as needed
to fit their business purpose, and then recycled or destroyed as part of
the normal course of business, legal or other specific holds
notwithstanding.

My .02 on a warm Colorado afternoon,

Jesse Wilkins, CIP, CRM, IGP
Denver, CO
[log in to unmask]
blog: http://informata.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jessewilkins

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message.
mailto:[log in to unmask]