“Erased” email reveals illegal foray into local business.

Private investigation firm was purchased, with a covenant by previous owners not to compete. Within weeks, suspicion arose that covenant was not being respected, and that files and media turned over had data removed.

Burgess Forensics was engaged to look into the matter. Thousands of files were turned up by their investigation, showing violation of covenant. But worse than that, steganography had been used to hide an entire stealth volume.

Using steganography detection tools, Burgess recovered the hidden volume, which was found to provide remote access to the entire computer, allowing an open window to the defendant of all ongoing investigations.

As this happened shortly after 9/11, the judge was informed that steganography was a technique that Osama Bin Laden had used to communicate with his lieutenants. Whereupon the defendant crumbled and admitted everything.

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