Computer Forensics and Litigation Support Expert Help Salt Lake Law Firm Prove Claim

DataMine Forensics, Salt Lake City, Summer 2007

Background:

Salt Lake City-based Company A and east coast-based Company B are competitors. To gain a business presence in Salt Lake City, Company B opened a new facility there.

Company B hired two employees from Company A and had recruiting interaction with at least two more.

Company A management suspected that prior to their departure, two of the employees had emailed detailed proprietary company information to their home computers. This information included customer lists, pricing, business practices and strategies. It was suspected that this information was then provided to Company B to help them break into the Salt Lake City market and cripple their only local competition. This information was emailed to a third party email service (similar to Yahoo Mail or GMail), and retrieved at a later time from their home computer(s).

Company A filed a legal claim against Company B.

E-Discovery Service

Computer forensic investigation expert J. Church of Progressive Imaging and Consulting, Milwaukee, Wisconsin was contracted, and traveled to Utah to assist on the case. Upon arrival he was granted access to the home computers of the two employees, as well as their old computers at Company A and their new computers at Company B.

Using specialized computer forensic tools and techniques, J. and the team were able to unlock password protected information and gain access to in-depth information. Electronic Data the employees thought had been erased was retrieved intact. A detailed record was compiled of all data "borrowed" from Company A.

J. used this information to develop a timeline that would establish and illustrate the precise times emails were sent, where they were sent, and exactly what they contained.

While the timelines were being assembled, it was also determined that one of the employees was running software to erase and delete this data even as the examiner arrived to examine the suspect machine.

Company B claimed that they had no knowledge of this activity taking place, but through information revealed by the extraction process, the team discovered that one high-ranking individual from Company B was at the home of one of the employees in question in the same time period that Company A’s proprietary data was transferred via email from the employees Yahoo mail account to his home computer.

Armed with this new information, the attorneys for Company A were able to prove that the employee was lying during a subsequent deposition. When all the details were revealed, the law firm representing Company B dropped the employee as a client. Company B also quickly fired this particular employee and offered a settlement to Company A.

This case settled as a DIRECT result of the five-day forensic investigation, restoring the viability of Company A, while saving thousands of dollars in court costs.

*Disclaimer: The facts presented here are correct, but names and locations have been changed to protect our client’s privacy and maintain confidentiality.