FORENSICON NEWS BULLETIN 888-427-5667

Message from Forensicon's President

Lee Neubecker

As 2014 begins, I want to thank all of my clients, business partners, staff, family and friends who have helped Forensicon, Inc. prosper over the last decade. We are celebrating 14 years in business this month and could not have made it without all of your support and referrals. I am fortunate to have clients that have worked with our firm for over a decade that still call us whenever they have a new case matter. Thank you, you know who you are!

Our lead-in article on this news blast covers an important topic that you should read, even if it seems too technical. Organizations that don't take steps to implement Two-Factor Authentication that includes a physical device capable of generating a One Time Password (OTP) are highly likely to experience a data breach in the coming year. If you suspect or discover a security breach within your organization, please give us a prompt call. We won't hold it over your head if you skipped the following article discussing two factor authentication using a One Time Password (OTP) physical device.

Earlier this month, I attended LegalTech 2014 in New York City. Every year, it seems that more and more companies want to jump into the e-Discovery space, offering to process, search and host email for law firms and their end clients embroiled in litigation.

While at the tradeshow for our industry, I took a moment to survey many of these vendors in order to understand if they were utilizing two factor authentication to secure access to their client's data. Most eDiscovery sales people I spoke to attempted to quickly claim that they did have two-factor authentication, but when I asked them to describe in more detail the steps they take to access client data, it became painfully clear that most eDiscovery vendors are severely lacking in effectively securing data. As such, I suspect that many of the copy print shops that jumped into the eDiscovery space over the last decade will suffer major security breaches this year if they don't implement two factor authentication, incorporating a secure physical device capable of generating a second factor One Time Password as part of the authentication process.

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Selected Recent Successful Outcomes

The end of 2013 brought many different, positive victories for our clients. Some highlights I would like to share include:

Recovery of DVR Video Footage Overlooked by Law Enforcement

"The footage you were able to extract included a couple extra camera feeds that the police had missed at the time they performed their own independent forensic investigation. I will certainly keep your office in mind should we need forensic assistance again in the future."

- Bollinger Connolly Krause LLC Attorney

Plaintiff Injunctive Action Against Departed Employee Stealing Confidential Company Information

Forensicon was retained by Plaintiff's counsel to investigate the computer activities of a recently

departed employee. It was suspected that the employee stole confidential business information and trade secrets for later use at a competitor.

Forensicon staff made a forensic image of the former employee's computer. Deleted data and metadata was recovered and analyzed using our proprietary data models to detect time-based movement of sensitive data. Forensicon prepared a preliminary findings report that was submitted to the court. Plaintiff's counsel filed a motion to compel discovery from likely outside sources of relevant data. (the former employee's home computer, the new employer's computer used by the former employee, DropBox, Google, Yahoo, etc..)

Forensicon staff provided testimony to the court suggesting the high likelihood that these outside sources of ESI contained, or once contained Plaintiff's proprietary information. The court granted the motion to compel discovery from outside sources of ESI. Forensicon examined some of these sources and performed filename comparisons and hash digital fingerprint comparisons. Forensicon staff prepared a timeline of events that took place for presentation to the court. This detailed the connection of external USB devices to the former employee's computer while working at Plaintiff, just before the employee departed to work for the competitor. Further details regarding file creation activity, movement and deletion activity were presented, supporting our opinion that willful movement of plaintiff's ESI to external storage devices occurred shortly before the former employee's departure from the Plaintiff's business.

Forensicon testified about the movement of the Plaintiff's proprietary ESI from the Plaintiff's computer to external devices. Forensicon staff detailed other deletion activity undertaken by the employee, presumably an effort to obscure the theft of Plaintiff's data by the former employee. The court recently ruled in favor of the Plaintiff and awarded attorney fees and costs for our client.

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These are just some of the examples of how Forensicon's analysis and consulting efforts result in positive, case changing outcomes for our clients. These examples and more solidify why it is crucial that counsel retain competent and qualified forensic examiners when conducting forensic examinations.

If you know a business or entity struggling with online identity theft, battling a competitor over proprietary or copyrighted information posted online, or investigating a recently departed employee, please feel free to contact me 888-427-5667 x121.

The greatest honor anyone can give us is when you refer us to a colleague or call us for a follow-on engagement. Please call or email if there are any new matters where we may be able to assist you or a colleague!

I thank you for your past and future consideration.

Sincerely yours,

Lee Neubecker

President

lee.neubecker@forensicon.com

888-427-5667

What is Two-Factor Authentication?

Are you protecting your data securely?

Two-factor authentication requires a user that is logging onto a computer network or cloud service internet provider, to have more than one means of proving who they are. Ergo, simply knowing a single password that you can remember won't provide access without having a second factor to prove your identity.

Our firm adopted these two-factor authentication methods and more so that we can provide a heightened level of security for accessing our client's data. Additionally, effective use of IP address blocking and whitelisting of remote access computers all help to bolster security of remote access users. Read More...

NSA Telephone Records Collection Program Illegal?

Changes Coming to How NSA Collects Data?

Recently, the U.S. Government's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board released a report that claims the NSA's program of bulk collection of telecommunication metadata is illegal. The program came to light following Edward Snowden's public disclosure of the program to the press last year.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board claimed the program is not effective in preventing terrorist attacks stating, "We have not identified a single instance involving a threat to the United States in which the program made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counter terrorism investigation." Read More...

Kids in California Will Soon be Able to Delete Unwanted Posts

Privacy Rights for California Minors in the Digital World

At some point in time, most of us have all done or said something online that we wished we could take back. The Internet is an unforgiving and relentless environment and one wrong post could adversely affect your entire life. Children, in particular, are often guilty of posting comments and pictures that could jeopardize their future endeavors and career opportunities. However, now children under the age of 18 residing in California will be able to effectively travel back in time and delete those comments or posts. Read More...

There are Solutions...How Forensicon Can Help

Internet Investigations

Today's companies, elected officials, and persons of public interest must respond to a number of threats. These can come from competitors, disgruntled existing or former employees, jealous ex-spouses, financial fraudsters, and social activists, among others, who may have a desire to cause you harm or commit financial fraud. Some may even do so while impersonating you, causing damage to your company's good name and reputation. Forensicon has assisted companies facing unknown rogue attacks on their reputation by researching and locating the person(s) responsible for said attacks, and identifying other potential person(s) and companies that may be working in support of the online smear or Internet financial fraud scheme. Many times, counterfeit or anonymous websites are registered by people wanting to smear or defame a person, an elected official or a company's good reputation. Read More...

Computer Forensics Consulting & eDiscovery Consultants

Forensicon, a leading national provider of computer forensics consulting and e-Discovery solutions, has assisted organizations of all sizes in generating methods to best respond to challenges raised by pending litigation, security breaches, loss mitigation, insurance subrogation, litigation holds, and many other situations that require the assistance of experienced professionals. Forensicon can help forecast potential outcomes and assist organizations with developing risk mitigation and management strategies. CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CISOs, elected officials, law enforcement staff, not-for-profit executives, business executives, entrepreneurs, and commercial litigators everywhere across the United States have relied on Forensicon's vast talent and experience in providing consulting relating to computer forensics and electronic discovery.

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Forensicon, Inc.
226 South Wabash Avenue, Suite 300
Chicago, IL 60604