Computer Forensics
Computer Forensics Defined Computer Forensics, technically Computer Forensic Data Recovery (CFDR), is the science of recovering data from an electronic or digital source that may have been deleted or otherwise damaged or hidden.
Author Archives: Michael Hathaway
Background Checks and Interviewing
Hiring Advice from an Indiana Private Investigator It’s been said that human communication consists of 93% body language and 7% with words. In this line of work, being able to distinguish between a lie and the truth becomes crucial. The ability to properly read body language can be the difference in hiring an honest person or a stone-cold crook. If you do a good job, your company may be paying big bonuses to your employees. But if you fail, the company may be calling the bank to increase the size of your loan to cover the losses. It is literally the difference between success and failure.
Identity Theft – Notes from a Private Investigator
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Security Threats In today’s era of computer espionage and high-tech identity theft, all businesses, governmental agencies, and private citizens should be aware that there may be bad people after private information. As a forensic accountant and private investigator, I know that once your sensitive and private information is discovered by a fraudster, your life and business can become very difficult. If you don’t have proper identity theft safeguards and internal controls in place, read on. My goal is to encourage you to become more aware and proactive in changing some of your standard business practices so you don’t need to hire a forensic accountant or private investigator to clean up the damage from identity theft. Background searches, computer forensics, and forensic accounting investigations that will determine who and how your bank accounts have been depleted are time consuming and costly.
GPS Tracking
One of our Indianapolis private investigators recently received a call from a parent who was planning a weekend vacation. While the parent relatively trusted the teenage child, she wanted to keep a close covert eye on her daughter and her whereabouts. Parents are rightfully concerned that their child could fall prey to a corrupt situation, and our GPS tracking system provided the parent with a peace of mind so she could enjoy her trip while keeping a current, live trace on her daughter’s location.
Hidden Assets
The Concern “My spouse has been staying out late and receiving text messages at odd times of the night. I’m concerned that he is planning for a divorce and maybe attempting to leave me without anything.” If you’ve ever had a thought like this, you may be the target of a hidden assets scheme.
Cell Phone Forensics for Parents and Spouses
Re: Cell Phone Forensics – The window into the lives of your loved ones Do you ever wonder what your children are doing on their cell phones after hours or when Mom and Dad aren’t around? Do you think your spouse may be traveling down a road that can lead to disaster for your marriage or the breakup of your family? The temptations that face today’s families are sadly overwhelming. If you detect emotional changes in your loved ones or notice that they begin to closely guard and password protect their cell phones, all signs point to a secret, and their smartphone isn’t the vault they think it is with analysis through cell phone forensics. Loved ones are worth forgiving, but you have to know what you are dealing with to take action.
Uncovering Hidden Assets: Divorce Financial Services
“The difference between a divorce and a legal separation is that a legal separation gives a husband time to hide his money.” – Johnny Carson. A funny joke to most, the underlying truth in this statement won’t have you laughing for long if you are the spouse going through this tumultuous event.
Why Computer Forensics and Internal Controls are Necessary When Terminating an Employee
You’re probably thinking that this blog doesn’t apply to you. After all, we hire IT guys to keep our systems running, and they have everything under control. And internal controls are a vague business concept that the accountants have mastered, right?!
Background Checks – Know Your Prospective Employee
Part 1: Know Your Prospective Employee Our businesses are operating in a challenging environment, where we’re cutting costs anywhere we can to maintain profitability. How much harder would it be to remain profitable if there are hidden costs? Every day, trusted employees are stealing money right within the confines of their position. It could be enough to hurt your margin, or worse, drive you out of business. In this blog, I submit to you that one area you cannot afford to cut costs is on employment background checks. Companies must have employees on their teams who are honest and trustworthy. To reduce the risk of all sorts of deviant employment behavior, business owners should know their candidates by having background checks completed on all prospective employees. This is part 1 of a 3 series discussion on the importance of employment background checks.
CFFI Launches New Website to Promote Investigation Services in Indiana
Certified Fraud and Forensic Investigations just unveiled a new website, giving consumers access to fraud investigation services and other private research available to them in Indianapolis. The website features a reformatted design, a simple user interface, and useful information.
