Key Takeaways Compliance document review is the process of examining retained business records to verify they meet regulatory, legal and organizational obligations. Document review is also a core stage of the broader ediscovery process, which means a strong compliance review program doubles as litigation readiness. Organizations in regulated industries must treat document review as a […]
FRCP 26(f) Rule: Meet and Confer Conference Checklist
Key Takeaways FRCP 26(f) requires parties to meet at least 21 days before a scheduling conference to plan discovery, and initial disclosures follow 14 days after. IT, compliance and legal teams should coordinate before the conference to map data sources, confirm retention policies, and prepare a proposed discovery plan. The conference must address ESI formats, […]
FCA Compliance: What Financial Firms Need to Know About Recordkeeping, Audits and Enforcement
Key Takeaways The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulates around 42,000 firms in the UK and issued more than £186 million in fines during the 2024/25 enforcement year FCA compliance rests on six pillars: conduct rules, Consumer Duty, recordkeeping, anti-money laundering, financial promotions and regulatory reporting Recordkeeping failures and gaps in communications oversight are among the […]
WORM Compliance Requirements for SEC-Regulated Firms
Key Takeaways WORM compliance (Write Once, Read Many) means storing regulated records in a format that cannot be altered or deleted for the full retention period. SEC Rule 17a-4 and FINRA Rule 4511 are the primary U.S. regulations behind SEC and FINRA WORM compliance requirements, but HIPAA, SOX, and FOIA impose similar obligations in healthcare […]
Communication Surveillance: What It Is and How to Build a Compliant Program
Key Takeaways Communication surveillance is the practice of monitoring and analyzing electronic business communications to detect compliance risks, misconduct and regulatory violations before they become enforcement actions. Regulations including SEC Rule 17a-4, FINRA Rules 3110 and 3120, MiFID II (the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive), HIPAA and FOIA all mandate some form of communication […]
Email Archiving Costs: What IT Leaders Should Budget
Key Takeaways Email archiving costs range from $2 to $10 per user per month for cloud solutions, with wide variation based on deployment model, storage needs and vendor pricing structure. The biggest cost driver isn’t the subscription but hidden fees like inactive mailbox charges, storage overages, support tiers, and migration costs. Cloud archiving reduces upfront […]
Regulated Communications: What They Are, Why They Matter and How to Stay Compliant
Key Takeaways Regulated communications include any business message (email, text, chat, voice, social media, video) subject to federal, state or industry-specific retention and supervision rules. Organizations in finance, healthcare, government and education face overlapping regulations (FINRA, SEC, HIPAA, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), FOIA) that all require capturing, archiving and producing communications on demand. The shift […]
HIPAA Data Governance: How to Build a Compliance-Ready Framework
Key Takeaways HIPAA data governance is more than IT security. It covers the policies, roles and controls ensuring PHI is captured, stored, accessed and disposed of under federal rules. A complete HIPAA data governance framework covers six pillars: data classification, access controls, retention and disposal, audit trails, risk assessment and incident response. Electronic communications (email, […]
HIPAA Violations: Types, Examples, Fines and How to Prevent Them
Key Takeaways A HIPAA violation occurs when a covered entity or business associate fails to comply with any provision of the HIPAA Privacy, Security, or Breach Notification Rules. Civil penalties range from $145 to $2,190,294 per violation (adjusted for inflation), with the highest tier carrying an annual maximum of $2,190,294 per violation category; criminal penalties […]
Best Data Management Tools: A Guide for Compliance-Driven Organizations
Key Takeaways Data management tools span eight categories, from governance and archiving to warehousing, security and beyond, and most organizations need a combination of them. Regulated industries face retention, supervision and legal readiness requirements that generic data management guides routinely overlook. Data archiving is a distinct data management category focused on long-term, searchable, tamper-proof storage […]
