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De-NISTing
Practical Law Glossary Item 1-521-1921 (Approx. 3 pages)
Glossary
De-NISTing
In e-discovery, the removal of system files, program files, and other non-user created data from electronically stored information (ESI). De-NISTing is a type of data filtering that is part of the data processing phase, which occurs after counsel collect ESI and before they review ESI.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a federal technology agency that maintains a list of over 26 million known, traceable software application files (the NIST List or the National Software Reference Library (NSRL)). The principal purpose of the NIST List is to streamline the use of computer technology in the investigation of crimes involving computers. For example, common word processing software may contain hundreds of application files, each of which has a unique digital fingerprint (such as a MD5 hash values) and enables the software to function. The NIST List catalogues the unique hash values for each of those application files. By comparing the hash values in collected ESI against the hash values in the NIST List, a litigation technologist can identify and remove application files that are unlikely to contain responsive data.
De-NISTing significantly reduces e-discovery costs because it:
- Eliminates known software application files that are unlikely to contain relevant content from the ESI that counsel host in a document review platform.
- Enables document reviewers to focus their review efforts on files that may contain responsive content.
Because de-NISTing effectively eliminates ESI from discovery, counsel should do the following before de-NISTing:
- Consider whether the types of files on the NIST List are likely to be relevant to the current litigation.
- Negotiate the use of de-NISTing with opposing counsel before proceeding to avoid later challenges to the e-discovery process.