Mike McBride on Tech, eDiscovery and Mental Health - Issue #21
Happy Friday! This week I'm highlighting a couple of things right here at the top because they are that important. First, a great TedTalk about the cult of being busy. Then, I also wanted to make sure you saw Craig Ball's offer of a free download of his workbook. I've already downloaded a copy myself!
Of course, there's a lot more. Enjoy!
Khara Croswaite Brindle: The Burden of Busyness | TED Talk — www.ted.com Join Khara as she explores the burden of busyness and its impact on our mental health, relationships, and well-being. As a therapist and former workaholic, Khara shares strategies needed for work-life balance. Explore the rise of busyness and what we can do to alleviate the burden it brings with tools that even the busiest, overwhelmed, and burned out can embrace!
Electronic Evidence Workbook 2022 | Ball in your Court — craigball.net I've released a new version of the Electronic Evidence Workbook used in with my 3-credit E-Discovery and Digital Evidence course taught at the University of Texas Law School, UT Computer Science School and UT School of Information. I prefer this release over any before because it presents the material more accessibly and logically, better tying…
Tech and Security
Talking Backups On the Every Day Cyber Podcast — www.mikemcbrideonline.com Earlier this week I had the pleasure of being invited to chat about backup strategies for consumers and small businesses with the hosts of the Every Day Cyber podcast The bottom line? - Some backup is better than none. Multiple copies in various locations and states of being connected to the internet are better.
Hackers Have Been Sending Malware-Filled USB Sticks to U.S. Companies Disguised as Presents — gizmodo.com The "malicious USB stick" trick is old but apparently it's still wildly popular with the crooks.
Linked: Cybersecurity Trends | 25% of Law Firms Have Been Breached — www.mikemcbrideonline.com Law firms are an attractive target because of the data, but also because it might be easier to breach a firm than it would be to hack the clients they represent. As the rest of the article goes on to describe, there are still too many firms without cybersecurity training, proper policies, or incident response plans. That is not going to keep things secure. On top of that, as I've written before, the whole culture in firms is a problem. Anytime you have a large group of people in charge, (partners), who are often not to be questioned, social engineering gets a whole lot easier, and the likelihood that even some policy that exists might get ignored is pretty high.
Don’t Use Biometrics to Secure Your Mobile Device | Sensei Enterprises, Inc. Default SEO Description will appear.
Why Use a Password Manager - To Help Others Access When You Can't — www.mikemcbrideonline.com Aside from the bajillion reasons to use a password manager, like LastPass, KeePass, etc. when it comes to security, there's one other really big reason to
Mental Health
As employee burnout and stress rise, benefits brokers beg employers to offer actionable solutions | Employee Benefit News — www.benefitnews.com Ninety-percent of employers are increasing their investments in mental health programs, according to Wellable Labs.
World Mental Health Day 2021 in the Workplace - a Roundup — www.mikemcbrideonline.com Today, as many of you know, is World Mental Health Day, a day to talk about mental health issues to raise awareness and eliminate the stigma surrounding what is really a common occurrence. Even in the workplace.
Every Day Is a Good Day to Talk About Mental Health, but There are Some Upcoming Special Ones — www.childabusesurvivor.net I'm a firm believer that we don't need any kind of special permission to talk about mental health and the stories of people dealing with mental health issues any day that we want to, but I also wanted to bring a couple of special days that are being set aside in Canada and the UK for the purpose.
eDiscovery and Legal Tech
Issue Spotting in eDiscovery Part I: How and When to Start - eDiscovery Assistant — www.ediscoveryassistant.com The following is Part I in a multi-part series on issue spotting in ediscovery. Being able to identify the issues with existing and any potentially lost data early in your...
Relativity Processing vs. Nuix Workstation | THE FORTED BUNKER — thefortedbunker.co.uk Following up from my recent post regarding “The Benefits of Relativity Collect” I am continuing to explore the eco system of Relativity. My topic in this post is Relativity Processing and I am lining it up against processing powerhouse “Nuix Workstation”. This is possibly a little unfair on Relativity to put it up against the industry’s leading processing tool and maybe comparing against Nuix Discover’s ingestion would be a more realistic standard, but Relativity sets the bar high for its products and to be the best in this class it needs to beat the best in class.
Linked Content Presents Challenges in E-Discovery Linked content—dynamic documents shared as links rather than attachments—are emerging among the latest areas of debate in how emerging data sources impact e-discovery. Not only are courts and discovery experts beginning to discuss whether hyperlinked content should be treated the same as attachments in production, but practitioners are also increasingly encountering the legal and technical challenges of collecting, analyzing and reviewing linked content in real world cases.
Employment
Italy's Employment Minister Touched a Nerve - The Workplace Is Not a Meritocracy — www.mikemcbrideonline.com Mr. Poletti is right, the best thing you can do as a job seeker is be connected to people who can help you. But the Guardian article is also correct that simply leaving it up to that has been, and will be, a guaranteed way to leave too many qualified people behind. Somehow we are going to have to find a middle ground, a place where hiring involves a true meritocracy but allows access to the most diverse group of candidates that we can get. This will not happen by accident. It will only happen person by person and company by company. Let's normalize having a wide and diverse professional network.
Law firms came ‘dangerously close’ to losing almost a quarter of their associates in 2021, new report says — www.abajournal.com The ABA Journal is read by half of the nation's 1 million lawyers every month. It covers the trends, people and finances of the legal profession from Wall Street to Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue.
Linked: Half of workers say they will only apply for hybrid or working from home jobs — www.mikemcbrideonline.com I think that makes sense, and it might fit for a lot of US workers too. I know in the eDiscovery industry we are seeing more desire for flexibility, and salaries going up pretty significantly. Though we aren't seeing the same level of disinterest in looking for a new role. Does that suggest that fewer workers in our industry have found what they are looking for in terms of flexibility and money? Or do they see the reality of changing jobs for a 15-25% pay increase versus what they'd get by staying? That's an interesting thing to think about. Do you know how your employees feel about that? Do you know what they want to stay? What will entice them to leave?