Overview
ISO/IEC 27050-1:2019 - "Information technology - Electronic discovery - Part 1: Overview and concepts" provides a high-level, standards-based introduction to electronic discovery (e-discovery). As the first part of the ISO/IEC 27050 series, this second edition (2019) defines core terminology and describes the lifecycle concepts for identifying, preserving, collecting, processing, reviewing, analyzing and producing Electronically Stored Information (ESI). The document is written for both technical and non‑technical personnel involved in investigations, litigation, regulatory inquiries and related e-discovery activities.
Key topics and conceptual requirements
ISO/IEC 27050-1 focuses on conceptual foundations and relationships rather than prescriptive technical procedures. Key topics include:
- Definitions and vocabulary for e-discovery and ESI (custodian, chain of custody, discovery, disposition).
- The e-discovery lifecycle: identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, analysis, production.
- ESI types and sources: active, inactive, residual, legacy data; custodian and non-custodian sources.
- ESI representations: native, near-native, image (near-paper), hardcopy formats.
- Governance, risk and compliance considerations: organizational policies, review cycles, privacy and data protection.
- ICT readiness: retention, confidentiality, destruction and archival strategies that affect discoverability.
- Foundational principles: competency, candour, cooperation, completeness, proportionality.
- Chain of custody and provenance to ensure integrity and evidentiary value.
Practical applications
ISO/IEC 27050-1 is useful as a reference and conceptual framework to align e-discovery activities with broader information security and records management practices. Common applications:
- Litigation and regulatory response planning (e.g., producing ESI for court or regulators).
- Internal investigations and compliance audits.
- Incident response and data breach investigations where evidence preservation and chain of custody matter.
- Designing e-discovery processes, budgets and project governance across legal, IT and security teams.
- Educating non-technical stakeholders (legal counsel, records managers) on ESI concepts and technical implications.
Who should use this standard
- Legal teams and e-discovery practitioners
- IT, information security and digital forensics teams
- Records managers and data governance professionals
- Compliance officers and privacy teams
- Service providers offering e-discovery, archiving or managed review services
Related standards
ISO/IEC 27050-1 explicitly references and relates to other standards in the ISO/IEC 27000 family, notably:
- ISO/IEC 27037 (evidence acquisition and handling concepts)
- ISO/IEC 27040 (storage security considerations)
These links help integrate e-discovery practices with broader information security, storage and forensic standards.
Keywords: ISO/IEC 27050-1, ISO 27050, electronic discovery, e-discovery, ESI, chain of custody, ESI preservation, ESI processing, information security, data governance.