Digital Forensic Investigations of Departing Employees

Many organizations expend tremendous resources keeping hackers from accessing corporate networks, but sometimes the greatest information security risk comes from your employees who already have proverbial keys to the kingdom. That’s particularly true with departing employees. Although it’s always nice to throw a party and wish someone well in their next venture, hiring a third-party expert to proactively determine if evidence of data theft exists can be a prudent and affordable part of your organization’s offboarding process.

Experienced experts in digital forensics investigations can track the computer activity of outgoing employees and help avoid expensive data misappropriation incidents, assisting in a variety of scenarios:

Data Theft:

In their final days, employees often deliberately or inadvertently retain possession of client lists, trade secrets, and other important information. Digital forensic experts can track the computer activity of outgoing employees and help avoid expensive data misappropriation incidents.

Fraud:

Certain employees are predictably more likely to engage in fraud, embezzlement, and other types of misconduct. Moreover, disgruntlement that can lead to departure decisions increases the risk that employees will attempt to defraud an organization. Experienced digital forensic experts can advise regarding risk management, helping prioritize who to investigate, perform associated investigations, and potentially prevent significant financial losses.

Litigation:

Employee misconduct, such as sexual harassment and discrimination, could be raised by a former employee months after their departure. Preserving evidence from their company computers, phones or other electronic data could be vital to demonstrate that a termination was proper, such as for failure to fulfill job responsibilities, or to otherwise document events before relevant evidence is lost.

Experienced digital forensics experts verifiably collect electronic evidence, prepare comprehensive – and comprehensible – investigative reports, and offer clear testimony regarding their findings.