Digital Forensics Investigations

When employees leave an organisation, especially in senior positions or with access to sensitive data, it is critical to ensure that information has not been misused, copied, or unlawfully taken. Digital forensic health checks of departing employees’ devices provide reassurance and reduce the risk of insider threats.

By forensically examining laptops, mobile phones, and storage devices, Certified Forensic Examiners can identify whether intellectual property, confidential documents, or client data has been transferred, deleted, or shared with unauthorised parties. These checks also help uncover evidence of data exfiltration attempts, misuse of systems, or breaches of confidentiality agreements.

What it covers:

Conducting device health checks at the point of departure supports:

• Forensic review of laptops, mobile phones, and storage devices
• Identification of data transfers, deletions, or misuse of sensitive information
• Detection of data exfiltration attempts and breaches of confidentiality agreements
• Evidence of misuse of intellectual property, client data, or proprietary documents
• Data protection compliance (GDPR, PDPL etc.) through responsible handling of corporate and personal data
• Legal and contractual protection by identifying breaches of restrictive covenants, NDAs, or employment contracts
• Safeguarding reputation by preventing leaks of confidential or sensitive business information
• Creating a clear forensic record of device status and review findings for audit and evidence purposes
• Secure sanitisation and recycling of devices back into the organisation after checks are complete

Once the forensic health check has been completed, a clear record is created documenting the status of the device and the findings of the review. This ensures that any risks have been addressed, sensitive data has been safeguarded, and the organisation holds an auditable trail should questions arise in the future. Only after these checks are complete can the device be securely sanitised and prepared for recycling back into the organisation.

This proactive use of digital forensics strengthens organisational resilience, safeguards proprietary data, and ensures that transitions of staff are handled securely and in line with best practice.

It is essential to follow forensic principles, evidence continuity and methodology when conducting digital forensics investigations.  Our team have a working understanding of the legalities, best practice and methodologies used in the current digital forensic environment.  We apply evidence continuity, covering seizure, exhibit handling, data collection and preservation through to examination and investigation.

How we can help:

The initial phases of typical digital forensic investigations are critical; we provide clients with a practical perspective and help them:

• Identify and seize digital items that may contain digital evidence
• Obtain the correct legal procedures and permissions
• Map and index electronically stored information (ESI)
• Help with decision making around loss of evidence
• Collecting other available records
• Evidence handling and chain of custody
• Examination of data from emerging technologies
• Identify the root cause of the incident, unauthorised access, breach or attack
• Examine all compromised accounts and systems accessed by the attacker
• Assist in providing evidence around the intruder’s profile and how technical defence mechanisms were breached

Once the evidence has been seized and preserved, the forensic examination can begin, including the imaging (producing a working copy) of all digital data from the devices collected using specialised forensic software and hardware.

The imaging allows the original device to be preserved as an evidence exhibit, leaving the imaged version to be forensically tested and analysed.

Precaution:

Clients often request their devices to be imaged as a precaution and if required, to be analysed at a later stage in the investigation

Working with our Clients, the analysis phase of digital forensics investigations is the interrogation of the data collected; this will include:

• testing investigation hypotheses
• traditional analysis of deleted files, browser history, access logs and file sharing
• understanding and interpreting the data structures
• examination of storage components
• identifying clusters, meta-data and unallocated data sets
• keyword searches
• identify the root cause of the incident, unauthorised access, fraud, breach or attack
• examine all compromised accounts and systems accessed by the fraudster or attacker
• assist in providing evidence around the intruder’s and/or fraudster’s profile
• determine how technical defence mechanisms were breached
• presenting evidence, findings and witness statements
• evaluate how to prevent future incidents, breaches and attacks

It is essential to follow strict data erasure standards, compliance requirements, and best practices when securely removing sensitive information. Our team has a deep understanding of industry regulations, certified erasure techniques, and risk mitigation strategies. We ensure complete data sanitisation, covering secure deletion, verification, and compliance with legal and security frameworks.

How we can help:

The process of data erasure is critical to protecting sensitive information and ensuring compliance with data protection regulations. We provide clients with a structured approach to:

• securely erase digital assets to prevent data recovery
• apply certified data sanitisation methods for compliance with GDPR, NIST, and DoD standards
• generate audit-ready reports and provide data destruction certificates
• ensure proper evidence handling for legal and regulatory purposes
• eliminate residual data risks with data wipe from hard drives, SSDs, servers, and removable media
• support IT asset disposal and decommissioning with secure data removal
• mitigate risks of data breaches and leaks by ensuring complete erasure