computer forensic investigation Archives

Discovery, Depositions and Findings

We had a Client, James who started and built a booming business with his longtime friend, Bill. Bill was outgoing, charismatic while James was more laid back and book smart, while both had the desire and knowledge to start a company. For years, growing up, through high school and college, they knew they wanted to work for themselves, didn’t want to report to a boss, wanted to have choices and full control over their own destiny and livelihood. After graduating with degrees in two different fields, they merged their knowledge and started a much needed consulting business in their hometown, just 30 minutes outside of Indianapolis. Twenty years later, they had talked about selling the business someday to spend more time with their families and [...]

Investments aren’t always Investments

We have all thought “What would have happened….if”, and never gave it a second thought. But in our business, we never wonder “what would have happened” we think “what did happen”. We had a Client whose best friend recommended an unusual investment opportunity to her. She had dabbled in gold dust outside of the US, specifically in Africa with a small Investment Company out of California and had some pretty good returns. She had been bragging about getting a 35% return on her initial investment of $20,000 and then a 20% return on her second investment as well. When she received her second check, she was asked if she knew anybody who would be interested in turning their dollars into gold, and of course she [...]

If You Are In Business, You Are a Potential Target for Corporate Espionage

What do you do in your leisure time? Watch football or motor racing? That’s all fun, right? Don’t kid yourself. Major sports are major businesses and that means big money is at stake. And when big money is on the line, there are also people who will do anything to “win.” For example, consider the recent “Deflate-gate” centered on footballs and Tom Brady. Now there is the Mercedes F-1 team suing a departing engineer for alleged data theft as he goes to join the competing Ferrari team. Corporate espionage and employee theft is limitless. It is not limited by content, size of business or geography. It is limited only by the aspirations of the person or persons engaging in it. Stealing confidential client lists – [...]

It May Start as a Joke, but Spyware on the Computer is Never Funny

Proving innocence and proving guilt are opposite sides of the same investigative coin. Here at , we are concerned with facts, evidence and truth. That’s the investigative business. That being said, good investigators are also experienced professionals - and, I dare say, experts – in human behavior. It is that understanding of how people react and what they are likely to do that gives us leads that others might not recognize. detectives are also steadfast in their objectivity, which is another sign of a professional. Objectivity promotes clarity and the ability to see past the heat of the moment. Derek came to us in a highly emotional state. The young man was trying to build a career in accounting and there had been “an incident” [...]

Play Poker Online? Losing? There Might be a Reason!

Do you wile away your time playing poker online? How are you doing? Losing a lot? There might be a reason beyond your poor poker-playing skills. It’s been uncovered that several hundred online poker player’s accounts have been infected with malware called Odlanor. The bad guys are able to take screen shots of player’s hands and then join the game. Unbeknownst to the victim, the bad guy uses the illicit information to cheat their way to win(s) during the game. Victims unwittingly install malware embedded in poker-related programs and even as installers. The innocent poker player never even knows what has happened – except they are losing. Sadly, that in itself may not be unusual. Until they quit playing, they will continue to be cheated [...]

Do You Think Computer Forensics Conjures Up the Past Like Magic?

Computer forensics is not magic, in fact it is very technical in nature and can be very exacting. People always wonder how the computer forensics experts at can “conjure” up “stuff” from computers that the owners thought was gone. How does forensics data recovery work? When it comes to files, forensic computer investigations and computer forensic analysis works from a three-pronged approach. The first is to recover files as we users know them. For example, a Word document or an Excel worksheet or workbook. These are files that openly exist on the computer. These are not files the user thinks has been deleted or removed. Although some of those could exist in their original form in the recycle or trash folders. The second is the [...]

Are Employees Putting Holes in Your Business’s Digital Security?

As if business owners didn’t have enough to worry about, computer hackers are opening a new can of worms that can affect businesses on the sly. And not only is it a problem, but an embarrassing situation as well. Let me give you an example: There was a site based in Canada called Ashley Madison devoted to allowing people to arrange extramarital affairs. The site was hacked and the identities of the subscribers were leaked out to the hackers. The data was traced back to the subscribers and they were sent emails infected with malware. Where the rub for businesses came in was that many of the subscribers had subscribed to the service using their business email addresses. So after the data leak, the malware [...]

Computer Forensics Done Right – or not at all

Recently the Department of Justice issued a US search warrant to Microsoft in regard to emails sent from an Ireland-based subscriber. According to an article in the Guardian, “The United States government has the right to demand the emails of anyone in the world from any email provider headquartered within US borders, Department of Justice (DoJ) lawyers told a federal appeals court…) While they argue the case in court with Microsoft contending that the DoJ has exceeded its authority, computer forensics firms here in the US are legally bound to obtain permission from device owners and to follow a legal process for cell records in digital forensics investigations. Some may believe that computer forensics investigations are done in the shadows. That may appear to be [...]

Is it Employee Embezzlement?

A very depressed-looking business owner came in for an appointment at . We are accustomed to clients or prospective clients arriving emotionally charged, either very angry or hurt, but they don’t usually act like this gentleman. Once talking, he explained that he was “darn near just ready to chuck it all in.” He said he was just confounded by what he knew was going on in his company. He just needed proof of it and confirmation of how deep the damage went. Whew. He explained that because his company dealt with many clients coming in for training from out of town, he maintained an apartment for their use doing their stay. It was fully furnished and maintained. What he had discovered was that it had [...]

Stalker Outed with Digital Forensics and Surveillance

After dealing with the very bizarre behavior of a scorned lover in another state, our female client called . Although she had relocated, she was scared because she knew he had found her. In her previous home, the man had stalked her; repeatedly calling her house and following her around. She had tried several times to seek assistance from law enforcement officers but was told that they could do nothing to help her. Not until a crime was committed. And by then, of course, it would be too late to protect herself. In an attempt to protect herself, the woman moved out of state. She changed her cell phone number. Only family members and a handful of close friends knew her whereabouts. But now weird [...]