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What is ICS and Why Should You Care?

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Category: Blog

Published on Monday, 03 October 2011 15:42

Written by Brian Dykstra

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Perhaps you've heard news reports about the Stuxnet worm affecting Iranian uranium refining centrifuges or seen something about the recent Department of Homeland Security missives on how to announce and track vulnerabilities in Industrial Control Systems (ICS) that control critical infrastructure. Industrial Control Systems or the more commonly heard SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) systems are specialized computer networks widely used to control sensors, mechanical switches, alarms and valves in everything from water treatment plants to gas pipelines. A real world example of ICS usage is precisely controlling the temperatures in large food refrigeration coolers used by a manufacturing plant to assure that food is stored at a safe temperature and that coolers aren't wasting electricity on over-cooling. In this case the ICS system protects public safety and saves the food manufacture money enabling them to more competitively price their products.

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Email Insecurities: Who's Reading Your Mail?

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Category: Blog

Published on Tuesday, 27 September 2011 12:50

Written by Ryan Lerminiaux

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Attorneys often approach me with questions about email and email security, such as: What exactly happens to an email when you press the “Send” button? How secure are the contents of your email as it travels from mailbox A to mailbox B? Why doesn't your bank send statements via email? And how do you prevent an inadvertent “Reply All” disaster?

Getting From Mailbox A to Mailbox B
After you finish typing an email to your friend in your email client (e.g., Outlook, Lotus Notes, Yahoo, etc.) and you press the send button, your email is sent from one email server to another using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). SMTP handles outgoing email or the delivery of email between parties. Think of it as the language that email servers use to communicate.

If you have a Yahoo! account and you send an email to your friend’s Gmail account, for example, the email is sent from one of Yahoo’s email servers (smtp.mail.yahoo.com) to one of Google’s email servers (smtp.mail.google.com) by way of a number of “hops” across the Internet. The email then resides on one of Google’s email servers until it is retrieved by your friend.

Email Insecurities
The problem is that the email you just sent (the one that’s currently traversing the Internet and navigating from one mailbox to another using the SMTP protocol) is probably not secure. Under most conditions, SMTP transmits your data—that is, your entire email message—completely unencrypted.

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Powerful New Native File Review

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Category: Blog

Published on Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:39

Written by Brian Dykstra

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JDA is proud to offer a new Native File E-Discovery Review solution to our clients. We have spent months testing and negotiating with different E-Discovery hosting vendors to find a solution that is powerful as well as cost effective. JDA has partnered with Sfile to offer our clients a dtSearch powered Native File Review platform that doesn't rely on hard-to-install, web browser plug-ins and there is no monthly per-user fee. As if all of that isn't enough we offer pricing as low as $12.50/GB per month with unlimited reviewers.

A typical JDA use case for Native File E-Discovery Review is after a collection to cull the data as best as possible base upon file types and date ranges. This quickly cuts down the amount of data load for review and ensures that the loaded content will be reviewable files. The remaining email and loose files can then be loaded into the Sfile review platform and quickly indexed and presented for searching. The integration of dtSearch makes searching a snap and quickly ranks documents by relevance

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We find that this process works well on internal investigations and matters where it isn't easy to develop a set of keywords or documents of interest without first reviewing some of the data. Every matter is slightly different and JDA does everything possible to make sure our clients have all the right solutions and prices that won't break the budget.

For more information on Native File E-Discovery Review hosting or any of our other E-Discovery services contact JDA at (410) 480-7190 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Forensic Accounting & Fraud Investigations by MKS&H

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Category: Blog

Published on Tuesday, 30 August 2011 13:53

Written by Brian Dykstra

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JDA tries to listen to our clients and address their business needs with new, cost-effective services. In order to provide better support to our clients, JDA has partnered with the full-service accounting firm MKS&H to offer Forensic Accounting and Fraud Investigation services. MKS&H's Forensic Accounting team is led by firm principal Robert A. Garvey, Jr., CPA, CFE, CVA, CFF, who has over thirty years of experience and well known in the Mid-Atlantic region for providing forensic accounting, fraud investigation and fraud deterrence services. Robert and his team have handled cases ranging from simple contract disputes to multi-million-dollar, multi-level international frauds. MKS&H forensic accountants have testified as expert witnesses on matters involving complicated financial transactions, allegations of fraud, business disputes and divorce issues. JDA is proud to welcome MKS&H to our team of well-respected industry experts.

For more information on Forensic Account or Fraud Investigation services or any of our other investigative services contact JDA at (410) 480-7190 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.