Guardian Forensics provides Attorneys the best in Digital Forensics, eDiscovery, & Cyber Security Services.
Supporting the Boomer Sooner Attorneys to Unlock the Truth with a combination of services in Digital Forensics, eDiscovery, and Cyber Security. Guardian will be making its presence known at this year’s Oklahoma Bar conference being hosted in Tulsa, OK. Working with the best legal professionals in Oklahoma is an honor and challenge unique to each case. Take the time to come by our booth and meet Team Guardian and one of our digital forensics experts, Alvey Matlock.
Forensics experts in Computers | Cell Phones | Cloud | Drones | Social Media
These are not ordinary times. It’s imperative for you to make the right choice when selecting a digital forensics company. Visit us at the Guardian Booth and allows us to begin supporting your complex legal and regulatory challenges, constantly changing technology complexity in litigation, cyber risk, and the need to help drive a safe business strategy.
Corporate investigations include Intellectual Property | Data Breach Assessments | Employee Misconduct
Bullying seems to be a buzzword in today’s society. What was once a simple act of the big, mean kid picking on the smaller, defenseless child has moved to the new arena of cyberspace. Too many horrific stories outline the drastic actions some adolescents take to get away from the bullying. Thankfully, there are laws to protect and prosecute when it comes to school-age minors.
But outside of schoolyards, few know about the damage workplace cyberbullying has caused good employees.
As it becomes the norm to sit back and pass judgment in a few typed responses, the rise of the workplace bully has been inevitable. Emboldened by not having to think or even look that person in the eye when they send out those emails or posts, too many employees have targeted coworkers for harassment.
Employees on the receiving end of this type of bullying don’t always know where to go or who to ask for help. Is this an HR matter or do you go straight to the boss? In many cases, to make it stop, the employee first must collect some “evidence” if you will. If an employee is the subject of co-worker bullying, it’s important not to snap out a response. First, the employee needs evidence no matter how much waiting and collecting might hurt.
Being firm and up-front with the bullies and stating that you expect the harassment to end is the next step. The important thing is to remain calm and firm. Don’t waver or give them any outs when it comes to your expectations. Keep an eye out to see if they take your expectations seriously.
If the bullying persists, seek out HR or even your boss and bring your evidence to them. Sometimes, bullying can lead to job termination and the threat of being unemployed will stop the actions immediately.
For the company owner or manager, stopping cyberbullying before it starts is a better tactic. If there have been reports of misdeeds and bullying, but scarce proof, it’s time to call in a digital forensics expert to do the digging and find the culprit.
In extreme cases of bullying, where litigation gets involved, having a computer expert witness will help protect the company, victim, and ensure that the guilty party gets their punishment.
Bullying isn’t just for kids anymore. Know what you can do to protect yourself in the workplace and make a stand.
Owning or running a business is more than a full-time job. The bottom line is an always looming reminder that you need to do more, to produce or even sell more to keep business going. Not only that, but you also must worry about the day-to-day workings of your business. And one of the biggest concerns for many business owners is their IT needs. With the growing threat of cyber attacks and data breaches, for many businesses, it is a matter of time before they are hit with an attack. If this happens to your business, know that there is help in the form of cyber forensics professionals who can help you recover and find out who attacked you. If your company hasn’t faced an attack, the following tips are here to help you avoid future cybercrime and therefore begin preventing cyberattacks:
Monitor your networks.
Keeping a close eye on your network will help cut down on potentially harmful attacks. Your employees might hate not being able to surf the web at will but having a closely monitored and closed network will promote cyber safety.
Keep up with the updates.
Too many times, companies put off OS updates and program updates. It is seen as a loss of valuable work time that can’t be replaced. So, the updates wait. Not updating programs or OS’s means your company infrastructure doesn’t have the latest upgrades to its cyber protection as well. This leaves you vulnerable. Keep the updates up to date to keep your tech safe.
Spend the money.
When companies want to save money they usually skimp on the IT department, hardware or software. Big mistake. Not having the new or newest protective programs leaves you open for attack. What’s more, hiring under-experienced IT won’t give you the talent to keep things as safe as they should be. Don’t skimp on software or talent.
Email security is a must.
More than one employee has opened a seemingly harmless email only to allow cybercriminals access to the company database. Optimizing email security protocols and rigorous employee training makes it more difficult for criminals to gain access to your company files.
Cybercrime is a sad reality of today’s business world. Prevention is the key to saving time, money and stress. However, if you find your company has experienced a data breach or cyber-attack, contact a digital forensics investigator to find out who is responsible and how to avoid future attacks.
As a company owner or even upper management, you know it’s important to find the right employee to help your business grow and thrive. Taking the time to interview and find the perfect worker only adds talent to your business and makes the daily workings move more efficiently. And every employee stays loyal and happy, right?
Not so much.
Some employees will stay for a while, some a lifetime and others only a few months. And unfortunately, the employee that loved the job on day one might morph into an employee who hates his or her job and the company on day 500. When that hate grows to action, you have a rogue employee on your hands.
Rogue Employee.
An employee who undermines the business or organization he or she works for. This subversion might look like good-natured (or nefarious) flaunting of company rules, making them a target for HR and repeated reprimands. More common and more dangerous are the rogue employees that have taken their hate underground and are working, silently, to destroy or at least cause havoc for the company.
The Cyber Problem.
Too many times, rogue employees who take their grievances underground, start to cause problems on the digital front. These employees might commit computer crimes such as stealing company information, purposely introducing worms or viruses, deleting sensitive information–and the list goes on.
What you can do.
Taking greater measures to protect sensitive information is the first step to thwart rogue employees. Better encryption, multi-level cybersecurity and more frequent IT audits are a good start. Keeping in contact with employees and regular meetings or evaluations can help management pinpoint possible problem employees as well.
And if They Do Cause Problems…
The best thing to do if you find your company has fallen prey to a rogue employee is first, get a team of computer forensics experts and start the investigation. These highly trained experts will know where to look to find evidence of any type of technological tampering. Stolen files, deleted files, even employee digital activity, will all be there to use as fuel to rid your company of this problem.
Rogue employees can be anywhere. Protect your business and, in case of emergency, have the right cyber forensics team on your side to get the information and keep dangerous employees out.
Corporate Fraud: Activities undertaken by an individual or company that are done in a dishonest or illegal manner, and are designed to give an advantage to the perpetrating individual or company.
A generation ago, company plans and assets were tangible. Filing cabinets could be found in many an office, overflowing with paper spreadsheets and ledger books full of information that made the business succeed or fail.
Today, computers, laptops, tablets, servers and cloud storage have become the repositories of company secrets and success. But like the early days of business, there have always been individuals within the company willing to cheat, steal and misrepresent to make themselves or their business come out on top.
Instead of white out and erasers used to change information on paper, files are deleted, digital spreadsheets are illegally altered and corporate fraud has become a digital battleground.
Many times, the investigation starts with a whistleblower sending an email or a phone call. Then the big guns are sent in. A Computer forensics investigator or team of investigators come in and start digging into the digital information.
Emails will be searched, digital activities mapped, information changes noted and when employees log on and off will be noted. All this data isn’t just gathered, it is organized and examined closely. Activity patterns are created and a digital footprint starts to appear for the person(s) being investigated.
Investigations don’t always need a whistleblower to start things off. Often, if upper management is suspicious of illicit activities or even quiet computer crime, a digital forensics team will be called in to investigate.
Once the information is gathered, examined and the guilty parties found, then the case can be created. Most digital forensic investigators, like the pro’s at Guardian Forensics, will give expert testimony supporting the evidence that has been found.
Litigation should be decisive with the evidence and the expert witnesses who found it testifying.
As long as there is something to be gained through fraud, there will continue to be dishonest business actions. With the help of the right computer forensic investigators, the truth will be found and the guilty punished.
Guardian Forensics is on the cutting edge when it comes to keeping data safe, we have a very informative email list that keeps you aware of news, trends and important information. Sign up here if you want to be on that list.
