HDD question; I think someone stole my data. can i check somehow ?

basically my dad is running a firm and he has quite a lot of important information on the hard drive / network... some VALUABLE information. We suspect one of our employees has used an external hard drive to copy all of our files...

is there any way we can trace who has done it OR if it was done ? Is it possible to find out if they used an external usb hard drive to copy our stuff from the computers in the office or the network ?

thanks guys.

 

Not sure if there is a way...but how come usage restrictions were not setup on those files to prevent this?

 

There is commercial software available on the market that does this; but no, there is no way that I know of. I suggest that you implement some means of preventing such a problem from arising again.

 

All that could be checked, even with commercial software, is the Last Accessed timestamp. But there is NO way to know whether a file was copied, or where it was copied to. That information is not normally logged anywhere by Windows, unless certain permissions/restrictions and/or monitoring software are setup beforehand.

As someone else said, if it was business critical info, then access should have been limited. Unfortunately that doesn't stop employees who have legitimate access from abusing that access if they become disgruntled, greedy, etc. There's only so much you can do.

 

Unless you had monitoring software installed at the time it happened, you're SOL in trying to track it down now.

 

do you guys know programs that could accomplish this ? ill tell my dad to implement this asap... but id like to know whats available first. i tried google without much luck. i know this sounds a bit dumb. So has anyone seen a list of these programs that i could check out ?

 

Well what would you like it to specifically do. I mean, you could easily disable thumb drives and the optical burners on the computer, make useage rights under windows so that only authorized personal can access the file.

I don't know of any software that monitors the tracking of files like you mentioned. I mean, even if you did, someone could even just print screen the page.

What kind of file is it specifically? Is it an excel file or pdf?

 

Unless you had keylogger software or monitoring software there is no way to know.

 

another perfect example of why businesses need to take IT seriously

guess what? a simple application isn't going to help you because your security POLICY is a joke.

unless you take security seriously, especially with "important data" on your network, then you get everything you deserve.

EDIT: here's the helpful part... hire someone to come in and audit your network and provide solutions for your problem. asking anonymous users on a forum for "high security" network help? no wonder you're in this position.

 

It doesn't mean his dad will listen to him. Remember its not his company. Who knows what his dad has implemented. Hes just the son trying to be helpful.

 

Guys this discussion is about how to monitor personnel that has been authorized to have access to sensitive data. not every body in my dad's company has access to this info...

So any idea what programs could help accomplish this specifically ? once again im looking what software i could set up to monitor if the employees are stealing any data from our hard drives / network.