Violation of Corporate Policy and Data Theft Investigation Plan

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 Large Aerospace Engineering Potential Violation of Corporate Policy and Data Theft Scenario

Suppose a large aerospace engineering firm has immediately hired you as a consultant to investigate a potential violation of corporate policy and data theft. You have been informed that an employee may have been using corporate email to send confidential corporate information to one or more personal email accounts, which may or may not belong to him. You have been told that this action has been happening each business day for the last 13 days and the employee is unaware of any suspicion. Below is a paper that :

  • Explain, in detail, the initial actions you would take based on the provided information including formal plans to preserve the crime scene(s) and eventual transportation of evidence to a lab. 
  • Analyze the physical and logical places where you would look for potential evidence on the suspect’s computer(s) and / or network servers.
  • Describe, in detail, how you proceed with the email investigation, including the review of email headers and tracing.
  • Describe the processes that would be utilized in order to recover data that may have been deleted from the suspect’s computer(s).
  • Identify the tools you would use to perform your investigation from beginning to end based on the information you have on the incident. Provide a brief overview of each tool, to include: ? A description of the tool. ? How you would use the tool in the investigation. ? How the tool helps the investigation and the evidence you expect it to provide. ? Why you believe the evidence the tool provides is critical to the investigation.

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A Comprehensive Investigation Plan for Data Theft and Violation of Corporate Policy

In today’s digital era, data theft poses a significant threat to corporate security, and any violation of corporate policy can have severe legal, financial, and reputational consequences. When an aerospace engineering firm suspects an employee of using corporate email to send confidential information to personal email accounts, an immediate and thorough investigation plan is required to identify and preserve critical evidence. In this article, we will outline a detailed investigation plan that addresses key areas such as preserving the crime scene, locating evidence, email investigation, data recovery, and the tools necessary for a successful outcome.

Initial Actions: Preserving the Crime Scene and Evidence Collection

The first step in any investigation related to data theft and corporate policy violations is to secure and preserve the crime scene. This ensures that no further damage or tampering occurs and that all potential evidence remains intact. Here are the critical initial actions to take:

  1. Secure the Employee’s Computer and Devices:
    • Immediately confiscate the employee’s computer, smartphone, or any other devices they have been using. It is crucial to power down the devices without altering the current state to avoid overwriting or deleting volatile data, such as logs or temporary files.
    • Document the exact time and date of confiscation and ensure that a chain of custody form is initiated to track who handles the devices.
  2. Restrict Network Access:
    • Disable the employee’s network credentials to prevent further data transfers or unauthorized access to the company’s systems.
    • Isolate the devices from the network to prevent any remote tampering or data deletion.
  3. Preserve Network Logs:
    • Immediately request that IT personnel preserve network server logs, email logs, and firewall data, as these may contain information about any outgoing emails and file transfers.
  4. Formal Plans for Transportation of Evidence:
    • The evidence, including devices and logs, should be securely transported to a forensic lab for analysis. The transportation must follow proper chain-of-custody protocols to maintain the integrity of the evidence.

By carefully preserving the crime scene, you minimize the risk of losing valuable evidence that may support the investigation of data theft.

Identifying Physical and Logical Evidence Sources

Evidence may reside in both physical and logical locations within the company’s network infrastructure and the employee’s devices. Below are the primary places to search for potential evidence:

  1. Physical Evidence:
    • Employee’s Computer: The suspect’s computer may contain email records, copies of sent files, and internet browser history. Checking the hard drive for traces of file modifications, downloads, or file transfers is essential.
    • External Storage Devices: Look for any external storage devices like USB drives, external hard drives, or cloud storage services connected to the device that could be used for transferring sensitive information.
  2. Logical Evidence:
    • Corporate Email Servers: Emails sent from the corporate email system can be retrieved from the mail server. This includes looking at the content of emails, recipients, timestamps, and attachments.
    • Network Logs: Analyze firewall logs, router logs, and outbound traffic records to identify any unusual patterns or large file transfers that may indicate a data breach.
    • Cloud Services: If the company uses cloud services, check for unauthorized access or suspicious downloads of corporate data to personal cloud accounts.

By analyzing both the physical and logical locations, you increase the chances of discovering how the data theft was executed.

Email Investigation: Tracing and Reviewing Email Headers

To investigate whether the employee used corporate email to send confidential data to personal accounts, you will need to conduct a thorough email investigation. Here’s how to proceed:

  1. Review Email Headers:
    • Email headers provide critical information about the path of an email from the sender to the recipient. Analyzing these headers allows you to trace the IP addresses involved and confirm whether the emails were sent to unauthorized external accounts.
    • Look for anomalies in the email header, such as spoofed addresses or relays through external servers.
  2. Analyze Email Attachments:
    • Check all email attachments to verify if they contain sensitive corporate information. You can use file hashing techniques to compare the attachments with internal corporate files and confirm if they were leaked.
  3. Search for Email Forwarding Rules:
    • Investigate whether the suspect had set up automatic forwarding rules to send emails to personal accounts without their knowledge. This can be a common method used in data theft cases.
  4. Track and Correlate Time Stamps:
    • By correlating email timestamps with network logs and the employee’s login history, you can build a timeline of events, showing when and how the data was exfiltrated.

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Data Recovery: Retrieving Deleted Information

In cases where the employee may have deleted incriminating data from their devices, advanced data recovery techniques are necessary to restore potentially lost evidence. Here’s how to approach data recovery:

  1. Use of Forensic Imaging:
    • Before attempting data recovery, create a forensic image of the hard drive to prevent altering or overwriting data during the recovery process. This ensures the integrity of the original evidence.
  2. Recovering Deleted Files:
    • Use specialized tools to recover deleted files and emails. Even if files were deleted or removed from the trash bin, data recovery software can often retrieve these items unless they have been completely overwritten.
  3. Restoring Email Archives:
    • Many email platforms store backup copies of deleted emails in the archive. Request IT to restore archived emails, which may provide valuable evidence of data theft.
  4. Network and Server Backup Logs:
    • Check if the company has automatic backups of network data and server logs. These backups can help restore data deleted from the employee’s computer or email account.

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Tools for Conducting the Investigation

Several tools are essential to conducting a thorough investigation plan for data theft and corporate policy violation. Below are key tools and how they can be used:

  1. EnCase:
    • Description: EnCase is a digital forensics tool used for comprehensive analysis of computers and mobile devices.
    • How It’s Used: You can use EnCase to create forensic images of the employee’s devices and analyze data such as files, email archives, and internet history.
    • Benefit: It preserves the integrity of the evidence and allows for deep forensic analysis of the file system.
    • Expected Evidence: EnCase can recover deleted files and emails, identify suspicious file transfers, and generate reports on file access history.
  2. Wireshark:
    • Description: Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer that captures and inspects data traffic.
    • How It’s Used: Wireshark can be used to monitor network activity and analyze packet-level traffic to detect any unauthorized data transfers.
    • Benefit: This tool provides insights into network communications and helps you trace the flow of data.
    • Expected Evidence: Wireshark helps capture evidence of large file transfers and email communications with external accounts.
  3. FTK Imager:
    • Description: FTK Imager is a tool for creating forensic disk images and previewing data before conducting a full forensic investigation.
    • How It’s Used: Use FTK Imager to create a forensic image of the suspect’s computer without altering the original evidence.
    • Benefit: It ensures data preservation and allows for the recovery of deleted files.
    • Expected Evidence: FTK Imager can recover deleted documents, emails, and browsing history that may provide critical evidence.
  4. X1 Social Discovery:
    • Description: X1 Social Discovery is a tool used to collect and analyze social media and web-based evidence.
    • How It’s Used: This tool can be used to investigate the employee’s online activities and connections to personal email accounts or cloud storage services.
    • Benefit: It provides an easy-to-use interface to capture social media and web-based evidence.
    • Expected Evidence: It may reveal unauthorized sharing of corporate data through personal accounts or cloud services.
  5. HashCalc:
    • Description: HashCalc generates hash values for files, allowing for file integrity verification.
    • How It’s Used: You can use HashCalc to compare the hash values of suspected leaked files with their original versions.
    • Benefit: Hash verification ensures that the files being investigated match the originals.
    • Expected Evidence: HashCalc will help confirm whether confidential files were sent via email or external devices.

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Conclusion

Investigating data theft and violations of corporate policy requires a systematic approach, from preserving the crime scene to using advanced tools to uncover digital evidence. By following these outlined steps—securing devices, analyzing network logs, conducting an email investigation, recovering deleted data, and leveraging forensic tools—you can successfully gather the necessary evidence to support the investigation. With the right tools and methods in place, you can ensure a comprehensive and effective investigation plan into potential data theft incidents.

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