ALL CASE STUDIES ARE SUMMARIES OF CASES MANAGED BY DIGITAL4NX GROUP, LTD.
(REFERENCES TO PERSONAL NAMES AND CLIENT FIRM NAMES ARE FICTIONAL)
Tom Allen was jealous of the company he worked for. He was jealous of the success of the business, and jealous of the people on the top that got all of the money. Tom was determined to launch his own business. After all, he was smarter than the people he worked for.
On May 12, Tom resigned from his position as Sales Executive of XYZ stating he wanted to start his own business in the same industry. He promised not to compete in any of the same accounts that he worked on at XYZ. To the surprise of his former manager, Tom launched his new business on May 14, just 48 hours after resigning. Even more alarming was the fact that several accounts surprisingly cancelled their agreements with XYZ. It seemed odd that Tom Allen could build a business so quickly, and that loyal XYZ customers were leaving in droves.
XYZ hired Digital4nx Group to investigate the PC formerly used by Tom Allen, not knowing if there was any foul play or not. What we discovered shattered Tom Allen’s little dream of running a big company.
Digital4nx Group analyzed the hard drive and found that most of the records and logs were deleted on May 12, the same day Tom resigned. However, using forensic tools we were easily able to recover the deleted files.
Among the recovered files was a file that contained large amounts of Internet data. We discovered that Tom had posted his resume online in mid January, setting the stage that he was dissatisfied with his current employment situation.
In February, Tom began working on a business plan that mimicked the operations of XYZ. Later that month, he e-mailed a “draft” version of the business plan to colleagues and co-workers using a HotMail account, an obvious attempt to conceal his actions.
In mid March, Tom formed his new company and opened a bank account.
In April, he copied huge amounts of information from the file servers of XYZ, including client lists, marketing materials, proposals, and company business forms.
Digital4nx Group recovered a backup of Tom’s personal Android Phone, and discovered that he went on a series of meetings with XYZ clients, yet none of the meetings appeared in his official company calendar. On May 12, we restored the complete logs of Tom’s attempt to delete all of his files and cover his tracks. Unfortunately for Tom Allen, Digital4nx Group was on to him.
After presenting our findings to XYZ, an injunction was granted preventing Tom Allen from using any of the materials belonging to XYZ. The judge ruled that Mr. Allen tried to “Steal another man’s business while being compensated by that same man.”
