Data Theft, Fraud and IP Disputes

MD5 are Experts in Data Theft, Fraud and Intellectual Property Disputes, providing crucial evidence to assist data owners with disputes involving employees and contractors that could have a devastating effect on your business.

 

Intellectual Property (IP) is invaluable to an employer – theft or unauthorised access to this can severely impact an organisation.

 

Example disputes include:

 

• Unauthorised data copying/theft from business including customer databases, pricing structures, company policies, software source code etc.
• Unauthorised modification of data such as sales records, accounts and employee records 
• Unauthorised access to email, websites, VPN, databases or similar
• Data ownership disputes

 

Whilst some data thefts occur outside of the business, sadly the majority are from inside the company – particularly when an employee is leaving to pastures new. Laws such as employee contracts, copyright and non-disclosure agreements can help to protect your data, however in the event of a theft digital evidence may be required to support your case.

 

Data Preservation

If you have a dispute relating to data theft or suspect an employee is unlawfully using your data, preserving the evidence initially – in the form of a forensic image of digital devices belonging to the individual (laptops, computers, mobile phones, tablets etc.) is imperative to avoid overwriting/changing any vital information.

 

A forensic image is an exact replica of the original device – as it is replicated using forensic software and is not connected to a network this preserves the original metadata. Once the data is preserved the device can then be used as normal.

 

How can we help?

Established since 2003 MD5 have extensive knowledge with cases surrounding digital data including access to outside data experts and are highly experienced at presenting evidence in court. Being experts in these types of investigations, our analysts are able to help identify vital pieces of evidence such as where the data was stolen, when it was modified and by whom.