Smarsh Introduces Web Archiving

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Smarsh®, the managed service leader in secure, innovative and reliable email archiving and compliance solutions, today introduced Web archiving to its platform. The hosted service enables organizations to capture, search, preserve, produce and supervise complete websites, individual Web pages, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, audio and video files and other content on the Web.

“One of the biggest weaknesses of firms’ compliance programs is the effective oversight of their reps in the field, and this is increasingly difficult in an era where we can communicate in so many different ways”

The Web archiving service crawls any website and captures each Web page and its contents in their original format, providing the precise record of what was published online at any specific point in time. Archived Web pages are preserved and rendered with their original look and feel. Interactive elements (such as YouTube videos, slideshows, AJAX, Javascript and Flash content) remain functional, and links between pages are maintained, pointing to the destination Web page or document as it existed at the time of capture.

“Today’s Web is not static text, but rather an immersive multi-sensory experience. This complicates the critical need for organizations of all kinds to keep an accurate, uncompromised record of what has been published to the world via the Web,” said Stephen Marsh, Smarsh founder and CEO. “Whether for litigation preparedness, regulatory compliance or historical records of the websites that affect your business, Smarsh Web Archiving enables organizations to create a forensically sound re-creation of the Web as it existed at specific points in time.”

Litigation Preparedness, Legal Holds and E-Discovery

Organizations need to know what was published and when on their corporate and affiliated websites, and they must be able to efficiently search and produce content. Web content, like other forms of electronic communication, is subject to electronic discovery rules that require organizations to manage and produce electronically stored information (ESI) in a timely and complete manner during litigation.

Smarsh Web Archiving can capture public and password-protected Web pages, and each archived file is time-stamped and stored unaltered in its native form in the secure, geographically-dispersed Smarsh data centers. Archived content can be securely downloaded to a PC, encrypted and saved to a portable media device, or imported directly into third-party legal review platforms.

Regulatory Compliance

The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) both require governed firms to meet specified recordkeeping, supervision and advertising regulations, all of which are applicable to electronic communications, such as Web content. Firms must regularly review their representatives’ communication with the public, document these visual inspections and note any actions that result.

“One of the biggest weaknesses of firms’ compliance programs is the effective oversight of their reps in the field, and this is increasingly difficult in an era where we can communicate in so many different ways,” said Rick Nummi, regulatory consultant, attorney and former SEC examiner. “Smarsh Web Archiving reduces the workload for compliance officers and illustrates to regulatory authorities that your firm is committed to supervision.”

Users leverage full-text, historical search within their Web archive, and can save search criteria and repeat searches for convenience, consistency and evidence of policy enforcement. The solution can also send email updates which automatically summarize changes on any page being archived.

“In financial services, obligations to preserve and monitor Web content are not new. In most cases, the methods for accomplishing this are manual, archaic and frankly, incomplete,” added Marsh. “Instead of taking screenshots, printing out pages and filling them away, all firms need to do is configure how much content to capture and how often, activate the Smarsh Web archiving solution and then monitor changes to the content over time.”

For More Information

Smarsh Web Archiving leverages the technology acquisition of Perpetually, LLC, the market leader in enterprise Web archiving. For more information on Smarsh Web Archiving, visit www.smarsh.com/web-archiving. For pricing information, contact a Smarsh representative directly at 1-866-762-7741 (option 1).

About Smarsh

Smarsh® provides hosted solutions for archiving electronic communications, including email, instant messaging and social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Founded in 2001, Smarsh helps organizations manage and enforce flexible, secure and cost-effective compliance and records retention strategies. For more information, visit www.smarsh.com or follow Smarsh at www.twitter.com/SmarshInc.

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