SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY GROUP INC

Some sobering statistics:
• The number of sexual harassment complaints filed with the EEOC has doubled in the last 5 years

• Monetary awards in federal sexual harassment suits rose from $7 mil to $50 mil. (US News & World Report 3/2/98)

• $6.7 Million is the average cost a large corporation pays to investigate, defend, and either settle or pay judgements for sexual harassment claims. (TX Bar Journal, Nov. 1997)

• 350,000 is the average verdict for a sexual harassment suit (excluding defense costs and intanglibles like bad publicity and reduced productivity)

• $150,000 is the average cost to defend a suit per plaintiff

• 85% of 2000 employees surveyed at medium-large companies said the top ethical problem in the workplace is sexual harassment

So what do you do to enforce your company's sexual harassment or use of assets policies? Internet filtering is a good idea. But often it is too restrictive. It keeps out some of the bad sites and often many more of the good sites. This is because Internet filtering works by either looking for key text phrases of by searching against a database of known pornography websites. The problem if that more of these sites are coming up every day so the database is always obsolete and any webpage that contains pictures but no text goes right through.

Can't an employee simply bring a CD or floppy in and bypass the Internet filtering software and simply put the files right in their computer? Or take a laptop home over the weekend and load anything they want on it?

Employers need a simple, cost effective way to routinely audit computer systems to check for violations of policy. Employees with these images on their computer can be warned or reprimanded but may well keep their jobs since it wasn't seen by colleagues. Once a sexual harassment suit is filed, the employer has less flexibility in how to deal with the situation.

Besides the legal costs, claims settlements and/or awards, other lawsuits may get filed, insurance rates may increase, your company may be the target of bad publicity, and potentially lose business. And consider the effects on employee morale.

As a Certified Electronic Evidence Recovery Specialist and Computer Forensic Analyst, we have been trained to examine all forms of magnetic media on all known operating systems for the acquisition and examination of designated Data /Information of request. We utilize all state of the art and updated Hardware and Software to accomplish these tasks. We have been involved in numerous Investigations and Audits involving some of the most Prestigious Law Firms and Corporate Clients in the United States. Our Expertise and Testimony has been respected in various jurisdictions.

The impartial computer expert who helps during discovery will typically have experience on a wide range of computer hardware and software. This is always beneficial when your case involves hardware and software with which this expert is directly familiar. But fundamental computer design and software implementation is often quite similar from one system to another, and experience in one application or operating system area is often easily transferable to a new system.

Unlike paper evidence, computer evidence can often exist in many forms, with earlier versions still accessible on a computer disk. Knowing the possibility of their existence, even alternate formats of the same data can be discovered. The discovery process can be served well by a knowledgeable expert identifying more possibilities that can be requested as possibly relevant evidence. In addition, during on-site premises inspections, for cases where computer disks are not actually seized or forensically copied (see below), the forensics expert can more quickly identify places to look, signs to look for, and additional information sources for relevant evidence. These may take the form of earlier versions of data files (eg. memos, spreadsheets) that still exist on the computer's disk or on backup media, or differently formatted versions of data, either created or treated by other application programs (eg. word processing, spreadsheet, e-mail, timeline, scheduling, or graphic).

Protection of evidence is critical. A knowledgeable computer forensics professional will ensure that a subject computer system is carefully handled to ensure that:
1. no possible evidence is damaged, destroyed, or otherwise compromised by the procedures used to investigate the computer.
2. no possible computer virus is introduced to a subject computer during the analysis process.
3. extracted and possibly relevant evidence is properly handled and protected from later mechanical or electromagnetic damage.
4. a continuing chain of custody is established and maintained.
5. business operations are affected for a limited amount of time, if at all.
6. any client-attorney information that is inadvertently acquired during a forensic exploration is ethically and legally respected and not divulged.