Top 7 Mistakes Companies Make When Handling Internal Digital Investigations
When your company faces an internal digital investigation—whether it's data theft, employee misconduct, or a compliance issue—the stakes are undeniably high. Your evidence integrity, potential litigation outcomes, and company reputation all depend on getting it right.
As a digital forensics firm, we've partnered with countless organizations through these challenging situations. We've seen how even well-intentioned teams can make critical mistakes that put their cases at risk. If you're a business owner or attorney, understanding these common pitfalls can help you navigate investigations with confidence and build a strong, defensible case.
1. Not Preserving Data Quickly Enough
Time is of the essence when it comes to securing digital evidence.
What Often Happens: Many companies turn to their internal IT teams first, which makes sense—they know your systems inside and out. However, digital forensics requires specialized training that goes beyond typical IT expertise. Creating a proper forensic image (a bit-for-bit copy of devices) requires specific protocols. Even seemingly harmless actions like turning off a computer or logging into a device can alter critical evidence, including metadata like timestamps and temporary files. Without a swift legal hold, data can disappear through employee actions or automated system cleanups.
Why It Matters: If evidence isn't properly preserved from the start, opposing counsel can challenge its reliability in court, potentially making it inadmissible.
2. Breaking the Chain of Custody
In digital forensics, how you handle evidence is just as important as what you find.
What Often Happens: The chain of custody is your detailed record of everyone who's touched or accessed the digital evidence. Internal teams, despite their best efforts, may collect data without write-protection tools (which prevent accidental modifications), forget to create data hashes (digital fingerprints that prove nothing has changed), or store evidence in locations that aren't properly secured.
Why It Matters: A well-documented chain of custody protects your evidence from challenges. Without it, defense attorneys can argue the evidence was tampered with or compromised, potentially getting it excluded from legal proceedings.
3. Handling Everything In-House
Your IT department is invaluable, but digital forensics is a specialized legal discipline.
What Often Happens: IT teams excel at keeping systems running smoothly, but evidence preservation for legal purposes requires different skills and tools. Standard IT methods, like simple file copying, can actually contaminate evidence. Recovering deleted files, bypassing encryption, and analyzing complex data structures requires specialized forensic software and training. Additionally, using only internal staff can raise questions about impartiality.
Why It Matters: Without the right expertise and independence, investigations may produce findings that don't hold up under legal scrutiny, weakening your case when it matters most.
4. Looking in Too Few Places
Focusing on just one device or data source can mean missing crucial evidence.
What Often Happens: It's natural to focus on an employee's work laptop, but today's digital footprint is much broader. Important communications might be on company phones, cloud storage accounts like Google Drive or Dropbox, collaboration platforms like Slack or Teams, or even less obvious sources like vehicle infotainment systems.
Why It Matters: A narrow scope can cause you to miss the key piece of evidence that proves intent or reveals the full extent of a breach, leaving you with an incomplete picture and a weaker case.
5. Overlooking Cloud and Remote Data
In our increasingly remote work environment, evidence lives in many places beyond traditional hard drives.
What Often Happens: Companies sometimes forget about data stored in the cloud—SaaS applications, corporate backups, email archives—or on employee-owned devices used for work (BYOD situations). Collecting this data requires understanding specific legal and technical requirements, including jurisdiction issues and privacy laws like GDPR.
Why It Matters: Missing cloud-based evidence means your investigation is incomplete, potentially exposing your company to compliance penalties and litigation risk.
6. Not Documenting Everything Thoroughly
Even the strongest case can fall apart without proper documentation.
What Often Happens: Every step of an investigation needs to be carefully documented: when devices were secured, who was present, which tools were used, data hashes, and storage methods. Internal investigations often struggle with inconsistent or incomplete documentation, especially when teams are moving quickly.
Why It Matters: Incomplete documentation makes your entire investigation vulnerable to challenge. Even when your findings are accurate, the case can be undermined if you can't demonstrate that proper procedures were followed every step of the way.
7. Starting Without Legal Counsel
Digital investigations are as much about legal strategy as they are about technical discovery.
What Often Happens: Organizations often begin collecting data and investigating before bringing in outside legal counsel. This can lead to mishandling privileged information, missing important legal considerations, or approaching the investigation without a clear strategy. Decisions about who to investigate, what search terms to use, and how to report findings all need legal guidance.
Why It Matters: Starting without legal counsel can prevent you from establishing attorney-client privilege over investigation documents, making them discoverable by opposing parties and potentially undermining your entire legal position.
Building a Strong, Defensible Investigation
We understand that facing an internal digital investigation can feel overwhelming. The good news is that with the right approach from the beginning, you can build a solid, defensible case.
Here's how to set yourself up for success:
Immediately secure all relevant devices and accounts
Issue a legal hold to all potential custodians right away
Bring in digital forensics experts and legal counsel early—their expertise ensures evidence is collected and analyzed properly from day one
By taking these steps, you're protecting your assets, your reputation, and your legal standing. We're here to help you navigate these complex situations with confidence, ensuring that procedural excellence supports your pursuit of the truth.
Need guidance on a digital investigation? Reach out to discuss how we can support your organization with forensically sound, legally defensible investigation services.