The Journal of the Section of Litigation of the American Bar Association vol. At Summerford Accountancy, P.C. we are pleased that we can offer this service to our clients. Jim Compton joined our firm in 1998 as an accountant, but before carrying a calculator for Ralph Summerford, Jim carried a gun and a badge for about ten years. Both the National White Collar Crime Center and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners have trained Jim in computer data recovery and analysis. Computers, these wonderful tools of our time, provide opportunities for abuse of corporate policies and the commission of computer related crime.
More companies become the victims of their own employees and outsiders everyday.
According to Jim the computer can not only be used as a tool for committing improper acts, but the computer is also a witness constantly recording and storing evidence. As a result, one of the fastest growing forensic fields is Computer Forensics. Astonishingly, Jim reports that about ninety-eight percent of the time the information is still there waiting to be recovered, and quite often for a long time. The first reaction of many companies is to use their own computer people to examine computer records. After an incident, most executives are concerned with recovering their losses and getting back to business, however, a professional approach to gathering evidence is required for successful litigation, criminal prosecution, or administrative action.