Financial Security Case Studies
Disgruntled Executive Steals Trade Secrets
Deleted files result in full settlement
The Board of Directors of a technical research company demoted the
company's founder and Chief Executive Officer. The executive, disgruntled
because of his demotion, was later terminated; it was subsequently
determined that the executive had planned to quit about the same time he
was fired and establish a competitive company. Upon his termination, the
executive took home two computers; he returned them to the company four
days later, along with another company computer that he had previously
used at home. Suspicious that critical information had been taken; the
company's attorneys sent the computers to NTI for examination.
After making mirror image backups of the hard drives, NTI identified a
file directory that had been deleted during the aforementioned four-day
period that had the same name as the competitive company the executive had
established. A specific search of the deleted files in this directory
identified the executive's "to do list" file. This file indicated that the
executive planned to copy the company's database (valued at $100 million)
for his personal use. Another "to do" item specified that the executive
was to "learn how to destroy evidence on a computer".
NTI's examination also proved that the executive had been communicating
with other competing companies to establish alliances, in violation of the
executive's nondisclosure agreement with the company. It was also shown
that numerous key company files were located on removable computer storage
media that had not been turned over by the executive to the company.
The company was able to settle with the executive for all that it had
originally requested in its lawsuit.
« Previous |
Next
» | 
