Computers can be used for many things, including spying and illegal activity. Computer forensics investigators can help sort out the problem, when a company is unable to sort it out on its own. Here Rick Roy, founder of Rix Investigations, an Arizona full-service private investigations agency based in Phoenix, discusses how his firm can help.
Many people don’t really know what the term “computer forensics” means. Also known as digital forensics, it relates to legal evidence that can be located either in computers or digital storage media.
When you are hired on a computer forensics job, in most cases, you are brought in to observe any breeches in the security of the computer itself. You are checking for a compromised anti-virus system, a compromised firewall, and for software that is key-coded, meaning that every key you code in is being watched.
There are many scenarios where a company might call in the help of a computer forensics specialist to supply evidence. Examples include theft of trade secrets, computer crime or misuse, fraud, theft or destruction of intellectual property, and spying on the competition.
Variety of Duties
Mostly companies hire us to do this type of stuff, not private individuals. We can fulfill a variety of requirements, including:
- Analyzing data in criminal or civil cases
- Gathering evidence against a current employee if the company has suspicions about him
- Recovering data – with full computer analysis of how the data was lost
- Investigating loss data following a break-in to see how the activity occurred
- Debugging a computer
Interestingly, several states are now requiring that all computer forensics specialists are also licensed as private investigators. This is to ensure that the evidence they collect is not dismissed in court over licensing issues.
