Computer Service "Forensics" Protect Companies
It could happen to anyone.
During a routine review of a competitor's Web site, conducted for whatever reason, you come across familiar content - data that belonged within and had until recently been safe inside your organization.
Then it hits you - the key employee that departed your company in favor of another several months ago. They had access to the data, you just know it. And you can't prove it. There's effectively nothing you can do.
Fort Lauderdale computer repair technicians say "computer forensics," or the investigation of a computer and its contents to uncover data, is being conducted more and more often - and in a regimented way that in many cases allows it to be admissible in court, if necessary.
Look at the statistics and it's not hard to see why. According to an FBI computer-crime survey, 44 percent of organizations that knew about security incidents reported them as originating within the organization.
Given how integral computers have become in business, organizations must consider ways to protect and preserve their information.
How should a company act to repair the damage? Here is what Ft. Lauderdale computer experts recommend in that instance ...
- Monitor staff. Computer forensics ensure that people with access to key data are using it within the rules of your organization.
- Retrieve "irretrievable" data and accessing password-protected data. Using special software. If a person is under suspicion, they will likely delete any evidence of wrongdoing, believing it can be erased easily and with only a few clicks. It's not always that simple, if a network support expert knows where and how to dig.
- In the event a key employee should leave a company, it's a good idea to have an outside expert take a computer image of the staff member's computer. This way, should data show up later at a competitor, evidence exists that it originated at your organization.
- Keep IT personnel away. Ft. Lauderdale computer repair experts say that in order to preserve a machine, and prove a security breach or other illicit activity has occurred, it must be untouched and unaltered. Rather than messing around, turn the system off and unplug the power before changing a thing.
