Electronically Stored Information (ESI)
Definition
Any information created, stored, or transmitted in electronic form, including emails, database records, spreadsheets, accounting system logs, chat messages, and metadata. ESI is now the primary category of evidence in most fraud investigations and carries specific preservation and collection obligations.
Related terms
- Chain of Custody
- The documented chronological record of who collected, handled, transferred, and examined a piece of evidence. For digital evidence, chain of custody includes...
- Audit Trail
- A log maintained by an accounting system, ERP, or cloud application recording who accessed, created, modified, or deleted each record, with timestamps....
- Authentication
- The process of establishing that a document is what it purports to be. Under the US FRE Rule 901, the proponent must...
- Best Evidence Rule
- The principle, codified in FRE Rule 1002, that the original of a document is required to prove its content. Under Rule 1003,...
- Forensic Image
- A bit-for-bit verified copy of a storage medium, created using a write-blocker to prevent modification of the original. The copy is verified...
- Hash Value
- A fixed-length digital fingerprint produced by running a file through a cryptographic algorithm such as SHA-256 or MD5. Identical files produce identical...
- Legal Hold
- A directive from legal counsel instructing relevant people within an organisation to preserve documents, data, and physical items that may be relevant...
- Metadata
- Data about data. In document forensics, metadata includes file-creation timestamps, last-modified dates, author fields, revision history, and embedded GPS coordinates in images....
- Write Blocker
- A hardware or software device interposed between a digital storage medium and the forensic workstation that prevents any write commands from reaching...
Explained in these topics
- Digital Evidence in Financial CasesThe US legal term for any information created, stored, or communicated digitally. ESI includes emails, accounting databases, spreadsheets, instant messages, ER...
- Documentary Evidence and Chain of Custody in Fraud AuditsAny information created, stored, or transmitted in electronic form, including emails, database records, spreadsheets, accounting system logs, chat messages, an...