In just a two-and-a-half year period – March 2003 to October 2005.

That’s astounding.  This from a report just issued by CREW.

Of course, "lost" doesn’t necessarily mean what people think it means.  Just because an email is deleted, and even deleted from the "deleted trash" folder, doesn’t mean it’s gone. 

From Justin over at ABC:

…But “deleted” doesn’t mean what it used to, according to computer forensic experts. Indeed, deleted emails and files, even years-old ones, are recovered all the time.

“We do it every day of the week,” said Beryl Howell of Stroz Freidburg LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that specializes in recovering lost data for businesses complying with court orders, criminal investigators and others….

“They look at their backup systems and backup tapes,” Howell said, adding that “with any electronic storage media, you can do forensic recovery and find deleted data.”