Case 1

The CFO of ABC Company has contacted you to investigate his financial manager. The CFO suspects the financial manager is siphoning funds. The CFO cites potential red flags to include noting the financial manager is always working alone, working on weekends and never taking a vacation. He notes that the financial manager is always very sensitive whenever he questions him on his work. The CFP asked the controller to log into the system and review the finance manager work for the past several weeks. The controller reports that she is not able to see anything. The accounting system is distributed with parts being on the company servers and parts on individual office computers.

What would you do?

Step back and think what could be wrong and how you would develop a plan based on the suspicion that there may be some type of misappropriation or stealing scheme. Outline an investigation plan that includes digital forensics.

Case 2

One of your client’s is an engineering consulting company that does lab testing has received complaint that competitors have gain secrets on their products and that such secrets have been leaked through the engineering consulting company lab. The director of the lab is very concerned and believes this suspicion is correct, and he wants the investigation to begin ASAP.

The basic layout of the engineering company includes an entire floor of rented space in a downtown office complex. The work is done on individual workstations; they are not tied into a central server. . The e-mail system is centralized on a server. There are fives office with engineers, three support staff and three offices devoted to senior management.

What would you do?

Step back and think what could be wrong and how you would develop a plan based on the suspicion that engineering company’s client secrets are being shared with their competitors. Outline an investigation plan that includes digital forensics and any basic accounting techniques.