What strikes us as significant is how customer-focused and practical their solutions are. This is certainly the case with their redaction toolset, COVER. As regulatory frameworks grow and data privacy, governance goes truly mainstream, so clients face significant data hurdles and huge risks in their management of data.
In conjunction with the iCONECT team, we’ve compiled some helpful information assets. If you’re grappling with privacy and redaction issues, consider taking a few minutes to read their helpful FAQ, COVER Capabilities Summary and a helpful White Paper written by Joshua Gilliland, Esq.
COVER is the ideal way to protect PII, PHI and sensitive information which may be considered confidential or proprietary. While retaining the format of the original file, COVER, a module included in iCONECT v10, can identify and redact protected information helping to meet regulatory compliance. Ideal for use in Legal, Healthcare, Public Safety and Government, COVER is the ideal way to make sure that personal information is identified, redacted and protected. COVER is ideal as a component of CCPA and GDPR compliance workflows.
The Process
What can be found, foldered and redacted?
Any word or phrase which appears in text on any native file, even if you don’t know the specific data you are searching for. You get to choose the information or entities that you want to redact and COVER will do the rest.
Personal Information:
- Address
- Phone
- Fax
- URL or Domain
- Names (personal/employers)
Organization
Location
Bank/Finance Information:
(Domestic/International)
- Credit Card
- Bank Name
- Bank Identifier
- Account Number/Policy Number
- Account Holder
United States (or other government) Information:
- Social Security Number
- Employer Identification Number
- Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
International Bank Information
Other:
Any word or phrase, plus Personal information identified for a specific purpose, disclosure or investigation. (IE, Student Card Number, Airline ticket number, Automotive VIN, trade secrets etc.)
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What file-types can be queried for entities?
Ian Campbell
COVER supports searching and redacting in over 800+ file types including standard Office file and PDFs.
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Can multiple redaction types be run at the same time?
Ian Campbell
YES. Users simply indicate the redactions they would like placed and click GO.
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Can I just search and report?
Ian Campbell
YES. Instead of redacting, you can create a search-term-report which will indicated the number of occurrences and number of documents that contain hits so that you can assess risk.
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Can each entity be foldered/tagged?
Ian Campbell
YES. The system can place each entity type into it’s own folder for further review.
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How do I identify records to redact?
Ian Campbell
Documents can be imported using drag-and-drop (including the explosion of PSTs and ZIP files). Alternately, files can be bulk loaded using an administrative tool. You can choose ‘all’ or ‘selected’ records
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Can text be placed on redactions?
Ian Campbell
YES. For example, a redacted ‘Visa card number’ can optionally have the word ‘CREDIT CARD’ placed in white text, centered on the redaction.
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Will it work with foreign languages?
Ian Campbell
YES. UNICODE language words can be identified and redacted. PII from 51+ countries can also be identified. Further, the COVER interface can be localized for users including French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish and Russian.
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Will COVER also redact words or names in meta-data?
Ian Campbell
No. COVER is designed to create redactions on the ‘body’ of a document. Meta-data will not be redacted.
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Can I place highlights instead of redactions?
Ian Campbell
YES. Some clients only want PII and PHI highlighted for easier visual recognition of sensitive data. Optionally users can select to ‘Highlight’ (yellow transparent highlight) instead of ‘Redact’ (black opaque bar), at no additional cost.
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Can I add or delete redactions once they have been placed?
Ian Campbell
YES. A QC (Quality Control) review is available where users can check for false positives (which can be removed manually) or additional redactions (which can be redacted manually). Users can navigate through documents with ease using hyperlink navigation from redaction to redaction. Redaction layers/sets can be merged prior to production.
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Can I ‘undo’ a redaction?
Ian Campbell
YES. Both ‘undo’ and ‘delete selected’ functions are available. Since the original file is not touched, the redaction layer is all that’s effected.
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Will COVER redact text within Microsoft Excel (XLS) spreadsheets?
Ian Campbell
YES. Text in tables in native XLS spreadsheets be redacted, including text in charts and comments.
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How long does the process take?
Ian Campbell
The process of identifying and creating the redaction takes seconds per average document. See the Technical Info section of this document for information on handling larger volumes.
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What resulting file is created?
Ian Campbell
Once redactions are completed, the entire ‘production’ toolset is available which can create fully searchable PDF files or TIFF images all with headers, footers, slip-sheets and other standard production features. Users can re-OCR files to create body text fields that hide redacted content. For XLS, a second native file is created and attached to the same record.
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Can COVER work on images that don’t contain embedded text?
Ian Campbell
YES. Tiff, JPG and image-only PDFs can all have text identified and redacted.
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Can COVER also redact video and audio files?
Ian Campbell
YES, although workflows may vary depending on multi-media type, requirement and data volume. Contact cover@iconect.com to discuss your project.
The Cost
How much does it cost?
For IN-HOUSE deployment, see the COVER price matrix. Pricing includes an annual ‘system fee’, plus a transactional ‘per document’ fee. Contact cover@iconect.com for pricing.
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How much does it cost?
Ian Campbell
COVER is an included component of iCONECT v10. For those looking to deploy COVER (auto-redaction) only, without the full suite of iCONECT v10 review features, COVER has an annual ‘system fee’ which includes a starter pack. Additional processing is charged as a transactional ‘per document’ fee. Contact cover@iconect.com for pricing.
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Can I buy an unlimited use license?
Ian Campbell
YES. Contact cover@iconect.com for pricing.
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Is COVER available on the GSA schedule?
Ian Campbell
YES (coming soon) via immixGroup. www.immixgroup.com
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Is COVER available for government use from a FedRAMP cloud?
Ian Campbell
YES (coming soon) via Innovative Discovery. www.id-edd.com
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What if I only have a small project?
Ian Campbell
COVER redaction services are available from select iCONECT service providers on a transactional basis. Check out https://www.iconect.com/hosting/ for a full listing.
Technical info
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Can I run this behind my firewall?
Ian Campbell
YES. The COVER platform can be incorporated into an existing network OR run in a secure Azure, AWS or GoogleCloud environment. Full technical hardware/software specifications are available by contacting cover@iconect.com
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Is it secure?
Ian Campbell
YES. Beyond Username/Password, administrators can add multi-factor authentication or run the COVER system behind their VPN as a secure system.
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Are redaction actions logged?
Ian Campbell
YES. COVER monitors all user activity providing a granular level comprehensive log to prove ‘chain of custody’.
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Can I add hardware to increase performance speed?
Ian Campbell
YES. COVER uses a ‘worker architecture’ which will allow horizontal expansion of the system to manage higher volumes.
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What happens to my original file?
Ian Campbell
It is kept intact. All redactions are stored as a layer. For XLS, a second native with redactions is created
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Can I export a new text file which hides the redacted text?
Ian Campbell
YES. Optionally users can download a ‘.txt’ file which contains the body text (with redacted text eliminated) which can save re-processing costs as part of an eDiscovery workflow.
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Is this compatible with eDiscovery platforms?
Ian Campbell
YES. Documents can be imported from and exported to ediscovery platforms such as iCONECT, Relativity, IPRO, Ringtail/NUIX and others.
If you have additional questions about COVER, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
READ MORE
A Capabilities Summary of COVER by iCONECT – Identify | Redact | Protect
COVER by iCONECT – A Capabilities Summary
Presented in association with HPC #HIPCOUNSEL – High Performance Counsel Media Group
Detail: A cost effective, simple and powerful way to identify PII, PHI and keywords in any document, in any language AND create black bar redactions on PDF files that you can download in minutes.
White Paper: Privacy Matters – Solving the Many Challenges of Personal Information in Discovery with AI Enhanced Privilege Review
White Paper: Privacy Matters – Solving the Many Challenges of Personal Information in Discovery with AI Enhanced Privilege Review
Presented by iCONECT in association with HPC #HIPCOUNSEL – High Performance Counsel Media Group
