Digital Forensics · Insider Threat
The exit interview is not the risk. The three months before it are.
Most intellectual property theft happens in the run-up to an employee's resignation — not after. If you suspect a leaver copied files, emailed data to a personal account, or walked out with a USB drive, we can find the evidence and prove it.
Overview
Data theft rarely announces itself.
It looks like business as usual — until the employee has left and a customer, competitor, or new employer has your data.
Company data theft is the unauthorised extraction, transfer, or copying of sensitive information — customer lists, pricing, source code, designs, contact databases — from your systems to somewhere outside your control. It is most often carried out by employees who already have legitimate access, which is exactly what makes it hard to spot.
- It is common. Insider-driven incidents account for a significant share of all data breaches, and the pattern is consistent across sectors.
- It clusters around resignation. A large proportion of intellectual property theft happens in the three months before an employee leaves — while they still have full access and a motive to take something with them.
- It is opportunistic and motivated. Disgruntled staff, sales personnel moving to a competitor, or anyone starting a rival venture are the most frequent culprits.
- It is quiet. Copying a folder to a USB drive or forwarding files to a personal inbox leaves no obvious trace to the naked eye — but it leaves digital evidence.
What we look for
The routes "bad leavers" use.
Every method leaves a trace — knowing where to look is the difference between suspicion and proof.
USB & external drives
Portable hard disks and USB sticks connected to a company laptop or PC, often shortly before the resignation date.
Personal email & webmail
Files or client lists forwarded from a work account to a personal Gmail, Outlook, or similar address.
Cloud storage
Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and similar services used to sync company data outside the corporate network.
Mobile phones
Photographs of screens, documents transferred over Bluetooth or AirDrop, or company data synced to a personal device.
Printing & physical copies
Bulk or unusual printing activity in the days before departure, tracked through print server and device logs.
Restrictive covenant breaches
Evidence of a departing employee soliciting clients or using confidential information in breach of their contract.
How we help
From suspicion to evidence.
- 01
Secure the device
The employee's laptop, phone or account is preserved as-is — the sooner it is isolated, the more evidence survives.
- 02
Forensic imaging
A verified, court-admissible image is taken in our own laboratory, under a documented chain of custody throughout.
- 03
Analysis
We reconstruct USB connection history, file access and transfer logs, email activity, cloud sync records, print logs, and deleted-file traces.
- 04
Reporting
Findings are compiled into a clear, court-ready report suitable for internal disciplinary action, an employment tribunal, or civil proceedings.
Why Data Forensics
Independent, court-admissible, in-house.
We are trusted by law firms — legally aided and civil litigation practices alike — as well as by businesses and HR teams acting on their own behalf. Every case is handled in our own Belfast laboratory: no outsourcing, no third parties, one unbroken chain of custody from the moment a device arrives to the moment a report is delivered.
Where evidence points to a breach of a restrictive covenant, misuse of confidential information, or a wider pattern of insider misconduct, our reports are built to withstand scrutiny — whether the next step is an internal disciplinary process or a claim before the courts.
This work sits within our wider digital forensics & eDiscovery service. If the data in question lived on a specific device — a failed laptop drive or a company phone — our hard drive recovery and mobile phone recovery teams work alongside the forensics lab on the same case.
Questions
Asked by employers and their solicitors.
The employee has already left. Is it too late?
Not necessarily. If the device or account has not been reissued, wiped, or reused, meaningful evidence can often still be recovered. Preserve the device now — power it off or stop using it — and speak to us before anyone else touches it.
What evidence can you actually recover?
USB and external device connection history, file access and modification timestamps, email send logs, cloud sync activity, browser and search history, print logs, and traces of deleted files. What survives depends on what has happened to the device since.
Will this evidence hold up in court or a tribunal?
Yes — our imaging and analysis follow forensic standards designed for legal admissibility, with a documented chain of custody from collection through to the final report.
Do you work directly with our solicitors?
Regularly. We work under instruction from law firms handling both legally aided and civil litigation, as well as directly with businesses and HR teams who instruct their own solicitors afterwards.
Is our data kept confidential?
Yes. We sign NDAs on request, and every case — regardless of size — is handled under strict confidentiality in our own laboratory.
The evidence degrades the moment a laptop is reissued or an account is reset. Speak to a specialist before that happens.