Solutions › Disputes & Investigations

Digital Forensics & Collections

The need for expertise in digital forensics has never been greater. According to Bloomberg Law’s 2019 Trade Secret Theft Survey, 70% of corporations believe their risk of trade secret theft will increase going forward, and onethird had trade secrets stolen in the past decade.

FTI Technology’s digital forensics and collections group is highly adept at identifying and untangling the webs of interdependencies that link people, corporate entities, monetary amounts, business partners, and outsiders to the critical events under analysis. This includes the common threats of data removal, wiping, or deletion, as well as the identification of unusual activity, such as unexplained gaps in computer usage, Internet browsing history, use of USB/thumb drives, and file access activities.

Our team can provide a strategic and systematic approach to investigating and collecting data from a wide range of sources including networks, mobile devices, and cloud-based social media data. We have successfully conducted hundreds of successful investigations including fraud, non-solicit, employee wrongdoing, pre-litigation, regulatory response, corporate due diligence, and more.

Whether for a time-sensitive investigation or an end-to-end e-discovery matter, the FTI Technology Digital Forensics team delivers speed, efficiency, and discretion for services including data remediation, electronic discovery, and software licensing, auditing, and piracy investigations. FTI Technology’s team can deploy anywhere in the world or work remotely to conduct operations with a minimum of disruption to our clients’ employees and operations.

FTI’s digital forensics and collection professionals offer a wide range of global services.

With teams, labs and data centers in the US, UK, Australia and Asia, FTI serves clients locally around the world.

Our experts have multiple years of experience handling all types of data including network, mobile device, social media, other cloud-based data, and emerging data types such as chat and IM. Along with forensics specialists, we offer licensed private investigators, damages experts, and a full trial services team.

FTI Technology Investigations Services

Expert-Led Collection & Investigation

FTI Technology’s digital forensics group is highly adept at identifying and untangling webs of interdependencies that link people, corporate entities, monetary amounts, business partners and outsiders to the critical events under analysis. This includes the common threats of data removal, wiping, or deletion, as well as identification of unusual activity, such as unexplained gaps in computer usage, Internet browsing history, use of USB /thumb drives, and file access activities. With hundreds of successful collections and investigations completed, the team can deploy anywhere in the world or work remotely to conduct operations with a minimum of disruption to our clients’ employees and operations. The team has deep experience handling a variety of data types and has conducted hundreds of successful investigations including fraud, non-solicit, employee wrongdoing, pre-litigation, regulatory response, corporate due diligence and more.

Forensic Collection Services
  • Assessment of scope & disposition of data to be acquired
  • Preservation of relevant data
  • Forensic collection of all data types including traditional data sources, mobile device, cloud and social media
  • On-site data collection with minimal disruption
  • Remote collection via DIY, web access or existing infrastructure over network
  • Preservation and reconstruction of corrupt or deleted data
  • Password cracking
  • Development and implementation of search strategies to reduce volume and cost
Investigative Services
  • Preparation for and conducting of witness interviews
  • Management of key communications
  • Performance of fact-finding investigations to uncover evidence and identify participants in corrupt activity
  • Assessment and evaluation of compliance program and/or internal controls
  • Forensic accounting review of books and records to determine scope of violations and reconstruct financial records to actual events
  • Background investigations of third parties to support internal investigation and assess ongoing business relationships
Post Collection & Investigation Services
  • Processing, hosting, review and production of multilingual data
  • Sworn Affidavits and Declarations
  • Expert Testimony
  • Preparation of responses to government subpoenas and requests for information
  • Preparation of formal reports for regulators and law enforcement personnel
  • Support for legal counsel in plea negotiations and ‘ability to pay’ defenses
  • Preparation for initial meet and confer conferences

How We Can Help

City through lens

Intellectual Property Theft & Trade Secret Misappropriation

Bloomberg Law 2019 Trade Secret Theft Survey: One-third of corporations had trade secrets stolen or misappropriated in the last 10 years, and nearly 70% believe their organization’s risk of trade secret theft will increase in the next five years.

The FTI team has a particularly strong track record in helping corporations protect against, detect, and contain trade secret and other types of intellectual property theft. We work to identify risky behavior by departing employees, secure all potentially relevant data sources, recover deleted data, gain access to passwordprotected files, and find key documents and system artifacts in a minimum amount of time – routinely delivering initial results and reports within 24 hours. Our team can then provide expert testimony about the results of our investigations. The team also works in additional roles around theft investigation, including helping companies that inadvertently receive trade secrets and serving as a neutral third party or court appointed expert to investigate and remediate data theft.

Emerging digital sources

Social Media, Sim & Chat, and Cloud-Based Data Handling

From apps such as Gmail and Google Docs to collaboration platforms like Slack to chat applications to popular social media sites including LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, the FTI Technology team can quickly collect and preserve cloud data in a defensible manner. Using proven software, tools, and methodologies, FTI Technology enables legal and IT teams to easily search, preserve, collect and review these emerging data types alongside other enterprise information so that they can quickly understand and act upon the content for legal matters, investigations or regulatory responses.

Remediation

Data Remediation

The FTI Technology team employs thorough and tested workflows to complete both small and large-scale data remediations. Using an array of data analytics tools, the team can perform a comprehensive identification of problem documents across multiple ESI sources and then quickly remove misappropriated or other unwanted data from company networks.

Software review

Software Licensing, Audit & Piracy Investigations

FTI offers an array of services to help software publishers and other organizations analyze the use and misuse of software licenses. From license audits to software piracy investigations to general licensing management, FTI’s global team of recognized experts in digital forensics, licensing compliance and investigations can help corporations monitor and protect these valuable assets.

E-discovery

Electronic Discovery Collection & Preservation

The FTI digital forensics team offers clients deep experience collecting and preserving data during the e-discovery process. From assessment of scope and disposition of data to be acquired, to preservation of relevant electronic evidence, to forensic collection of a full array of data types, to preservation and reconstruction of corrupt or deleted data, the digital forensics team can help. Additionally, the team has worked on email fabrication and alteration matters, testified about authenticity of documents, done deletion analyses from cell phones, email servers and other sources and worked on many other complex e-discovery challenges. Throughout the entire litigation lifecycle — from data collection and culling to review and production for possible presentation in court — the entire FTI Technology team employs proven methodologies that provide a strategic and logistical advantage.