Cyber Diligence

Internal investigations are our specialty. We offer an unsurpassed level of experience in conducting internal investigations. Each member of our senior management team has spent most of his law enforcement career conducting internal investigations in the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau, which has the most sophisticated and comprehensive internal investigative apparatus in the world. With over 650 investigators and commanders assigned, it is by far the largest and most sophisticated. Our executive team is entirely made up of former members of this bureau, including its founder and the bureau chief for the last sixteen years. Not only are we very familiar with all aspects of internal investigations but we also have a thorough knowledge of applicable law—we know what is permissible and what is not.

When it comes to internal misconduct, computers or mobile devices are generally involved in some manner. They sometimes are used to commit the misconduct and sometimes contain evidence related to the misconduct. Misconduct occurs when the employee of a company is violating the company’s personal conduct policy. In the event of a suspected violation, whether the suspect is stealing the company’s intellectual property, embezzling funds, or creating a hostile work environment, we will be able to create a strategic plan of action to conduct the investigation.

We are able to stealthily secure forensic images of a company’s server, suspects’ workstations and storage media; collect and preserve email; and conduct network and workstation monitoring without alerting the suspect under investigation. Our investigative experience, along with our technical capabilities, makes us unique when it comes to internal investigations.

Cyber Investigation is the process of monitoring crimes that occur via a computer or any other electronic device. Computer crimes include Internet fraud, Internet defamation, cyber stalking and harassment, child pornography, hacking, copyright infringement, illegal wire transfers, phishing schemes, and malicious viral attacks. These illegal activities may be committed across the globe using a computer, or even mobile devices, with Internet access. We are able to assist you in preventing these attacks from happening, and contain and suppress ongoing attacks.

We are well-experienced and well-equipped to handle any type of cyber investigation. We deploy proven technology and investigative methodologies to uncover the who, what, when, where, and why behind a cybercrime. We will investigate each case carefully and thoroughly, with proven solutions, to uncover the evidence that is necessary for the resolution of your problem.

However, we are honest with our clients in terms of what is doable and what is not. We have conducted thousands of investigations throughout our law enforcement careers and have, for the most part, seen it all. Many investigations result in inconclusive results because the “bad guys” are located abroad, use anonymous proxies, or use public WiFi networks. After the initial case assessment, we can typically tell if the investigation has a chance of success in achieving the investigative goal.

What separates Cyber Diligence from the rest of the pack is that we have the extensive experience and background necessary in dealing with corruption investigations. Members of our team, during their careers with the NYPD, have investigated cases ranging from front-page newsworthy events to highly sensitive projects that were never reported by the news media. We are able to investigate alleged violations of laws, allegations of bribery and financial mismanagement including kickbacks, money laundering, internal control lapses, and other financial improprieties.

Although we are primarily a digital forensics firm, we also have high qualifications in terms of corruption investigations. Conducting corruption investigations can become particularly intricate. It is important to ensure that the investigations are completed effectively and thoroughly following proven methodologies. Part of conducting an investigation entails the collection and preservation of evidence.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is a federal law enacted in 1977 which prohibits companies from paying bribes to foreign government officials and political figures for the purpose of obtaining business. FCPA investigations can become highly complex. Since these cases involve sovereign nations, it is important to ensure that the investigations are completed effectively and thoroughly. We provide consulting services to Sovereign Nations, Government Organizations and Private Corporations on corruption prevention and investigations. We have a great deal of experience on how to investigate such allegations. We understand that not all allegations of this kind are based on truth. Sometimes, such allegations are made as a result of ulterior motives which can range from a personal vendetta to obtaining a competitive advantage. It is important to note, however, that such allegations must be investigated thoroughly by qualified investigators using proven investigative methodologies. The Cyber Diligence executive team is comprised of world-renowned experts on corruption allegation investigations.

Data spoliation is defined as an act of intentionally withholding, hiding, altering, or destroying digital evidence relevant to a legal proceeding. Spoliation, if proven, has very serious consequences—particularly in civil litigation. Case law has established that proceedings which might have been altered by spoliation may be interpreted under a “spoliation inference,” which is a negative evidentiary inference that a judge can draw from a party’s destruction of a document or thing that is relevant to an ongoing or reasonably foreseeable civil or criminal proceeding. This often results in sanctions which can range from monetary fines to adverse inference instructions to the jury.

Spoliation investigations can be highly technical and complicated. The act of spoliation can involve wiping data using a specialized software, swapping a device’s original hard drive, reinstalling the operating system, deleting data, and running defragmentation, among others. All of these actions, however, leave telltale signs on the computer hard drive—signs that we regularly uncover. We have been involved in numerous cases where we were able to prove with clear and convincing forensic evidence that spoliation had occurred and have even revealed what data was erased.

Please refer to Case Studies 1 & 9 to read about two investigations we have conducted involving data spoliation.

Not only are we experts in Digital Forensics, we also provide financial investigation services to a broad range of clients. Our director of financial investigations has over 26 years of law enforcement experience with a focus on forensic accounting. He has served as the Commanding Officer of the Financial Investigations Unit of the Internal Affairs Bureau of the New York Police Department, directly expanding the department while providing training to other officers. As such, we have the capability to provide fraud investigation and prevention, complex litigation support, and forensic accounting services to business organizations of all sizes. Additionally, Cyber Diligence experts routinely provide consulting and expert witness assistance to attorneys in a variety of financial litigation matters.

We often find that forensic reports and declarations completed by “independent” forensic examiners are not “independent” at all. They are often swayed towards helping their client triumph in their legal battle. Unfortunately, many digital forensic experts fall victim to such practices, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally. In our experience we have seen two separate phenomena involving swayed expert declarations. We have witnessed a forensic expert struggling with his own statements because the law firm is a prominent client of the company he worked for, and the attorneys were dictating to him what his “expert opinion” should be. This is an exceptionally common occurrence. We also see counsel changing the contents of the forensic expert's report and filing an electronic declaration to the court which is so heavily modified, it becomes a total fabrication.