News and information about Data Privacy, Computer Forensics, or anything techie-related.

I had the pleasure of seeing the film “Up in the Air” last night (very good film, by the way) and it got me thinking about how companies need to follow the proper procedures when laying off employees. That’s where I come in…

Earlier this year I was working on a Computer Forensics case for a large corporation who was laying off a big group of employees. Because of the size of the group (over 700) they decided to lay off everyone at once instead of in face-to-face meetings. They herded people into the lunch room to explain the situation and severance packages, and some people immediately got up during the meeting and went back to their cubicles, presumably to pack their belongings. However, many of these “early departers” were also found to be copying lots of company confidential data to CD’s and USB flash drives.  Based on the registry data on the hard drive and the timestamps of the user’s folder, I was able to determine what files were copied at the last minute, and HR was able to pursue the proper actions with the laid-off employees.