- Collect data, including deleted files, from laptops, phones, tablets and other devices or cloud storage
- Analyse user behaviour (e.g. log file and registry analysis)
- Look for traces of computer breach (virus, malware)
Detect and analyse breaches.
Are you prepared?
We understand the need to find evidence while maintaining proportionality and minimising cost and disruption. Thanks to experience from eDiscovery cases worldwide, we advise lawyers and company executives on how to best prepare for the possibility of a discovery request.
For a confidential discussion that can lessen the risk of costly and disruptive electronic discoveries, please get in touch for more details.
Services and solutions
IT systems are generally not designed to respond to critical events. We offer technological solutions to collect, process and review large and complex data sets from our clients’ IT infrastructure with procedures that hold up in court and before international regulatory bodies.
Our team has the experience, expertise and capacity to guide and advise you through the entire discovery process.
Detect suspicious patterns.
From any number of (un)structured data sources.
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Where we help
We help our clients to manage legal or regulatory incidents and crises in the following areas:
Corporate investigations
- Substantiate fraud or corruption allegations made against a business or individual
- Carry out voluntary self-disclosures in front of law enforcement, act as a technical expert witness
Disclosures and financial crime reviews
- Respond quickly and effectively to disputes and regulatory matters
- Offer extensive experience with large-scale reviews such as AML, CTF, sanctions, US tax and KYC
Dispute analysis and litigations
- Provide a customised virtual safe room for efficient litigation disclosure
- Create a financial (e.g. sales) model to enumerate claims in a dispute case
Our review platform
We offer and fully support Relativity, today’s market leading web-based eDiscovery platform. We run Relativity on client’s premises in a stand-alone network, or online hosted by PwC Switzerland. Your benefits include:
- Collaboration
- Response
- Scalability
- Security
Collaboration
Collaborate from anywhere
Our online platform allows for seamless collaboration between internal teams and outside counsel – across all the different stages of eDiscovery in a single solution, from anywhere in the world via: https://ediscovery.pwc.ch
Response
Quick response
A Relativity case can be set up in a matter of hours, and review can start while data is being added to the platform in the background. Together with our FTS colleagues from around the world, we can support a 24/7 review, if so desired, to tackle even the most high-pressure incidents.
Scalability
Scalable and flexible
We are trained in tailoring Relativity to the needs of projects of all shapes and sizes. Projects we support range from a few hundred documents and one reviewer, to millions of documents involving 100+ reviewers from all over the world. We host projects for companies in and outside Switzerland, both online and stand-alone, with only part of the data shared with reviewers abroad – if data privacy laws so dictate.
Security
Keep your data safe
Security is built into Relativity from the ground up using industry-standard technologies. As an additional security measure, we run Relativity behind the PwC firewall with 2-factor authentication in the same state-of-the-art data centre from which we run our own infrastructure.
Your benefits
Experience
- FTS Switzerland has conducted large and complex global investigations and disclosure exercises
- Our team has collected data worldwide, even in places where legacy devices are still in use
Expertise
- By following a strict forensic workflow, we are able to effectively address cases of any size and deliver quality results that will hold up in court
- Our standardised but customisable approach allows us to adapt to clients’ needs and deliver results without any compromises or exceptions
- We are continuously investing in the development of skills, technologies and software, to ensure swift and accurate delivery
Capacity
- As part of the PwC network of firms, we offer end-to-end solutions from initial data collection through to multidisciplinary investigation and remediation
- With 65 tightly connected FTS teams in 35 countries, we understand the local legislative and cultural environment, and are able to quickly deploy personnel to assess and secure potential evidence globally
- To manage data privacy issues, PwC offers a review platform in seven strategically placed data centres, including one in Switzerland
“Our team of specialists can tackle any crisis or anxiety causing you troubles: fraud, corruption, contract disputes, litigation and theft of IP or licensing irregularities, regulatory investigations and so on – at a moment’s notice.”
Examples of our work
We have worked with many leading companies to deal with integrity issues and investigate allegations of fraud and corruption.
An industrial company had to investigate bribery allegations made against them
We were on site for the first crisis meeting within 1 hour of the initial call and addressed the biggest challenge: how to acquire data from high placed individuals in 12 countries with minimal business disruption.
Together with local FTS resources, we simultaneously imaged the personal devices and scanned the hardcopy documents of 35 custodians in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, returning each custodian’s devices within 4 hours. Additionally, we acquired over 20,000,000 emails, documents and financial records from both legacy and current (cloud-based) ERP systems.
While the collection was ongoing, data was transported to Zurich for processing and hosting on the Swiss review platform, where over 30 lawyers were reviewing files from within Germany, Ireland, the USA and Switzerland.
FINMA ordered an AML review on 20,000 accounts within six months
We installed a server and more than 100 reviewer PCs in a stand-alone network on the client’s premises. The server ran a customised review platform, allowing for fine-grained review (based on language, access to client systems and experience) over multiple levels. We created a secure and user-friendly tool on the client’s network through which reviewers could ask the respective relationship managers questions about accounts.
A sports association suspected a dismissed executive of deleting files from the company’s IT equipment prior to handing it over to Human Resources
We performed a forensic analysis on the equipment and were able to confirm specialised wiping and file shredding software was used after the executive’s dismissal. We found evidence that an external hard disk, which was regularly connected to the executive’s laptop, had not been handed over. We found that the flash drives submitted had been connected to another device, only days before being handed over. Our client is using these findings in ongoing court proceedings.
A client received confidential financial information about their operations from an unknown email address
We were onsite a few hours after the initial call to set up a plan to find out how this data was leaked, and by whom. Data analytics specialists analysed the log files of the ERP system the data originated from; colleagues from Computer Forensics analysed the laptops of key custodians, and our eDiscovery team captured and analysed email and Internet traffic data to narrow down the list of suspects. A call-home email was sent back to the unknown email address to capture the perpetrator’s IP address. Our client is using our findings in ongoing legal proceedings, and to improve the security of their IT ecosystem.
Contact us
Call us on day one and we’ll get straight to work securing your data and helping you on the road to successful discovery.
https://pages.pwc.ch/core-contact-page?form_id=7014L000000Po8JQAS&embed=true&lang=en
About us
Forensic Technology Solutions (FTS) is a department within PwC Switzerland that provides the technical infrastructure needed to conduct a wide range of investigations.
With a dedicated forensic lab in Zurich, we are trained in the acquisition and analysis of electronic data. We understand the wider commercial issues – such as how to minimise costs and disruption to business, and the wider legal issues – such as how to deal with data privacy across multiple jurisdictions.
As part of Forensic Services, we combine forensic accounting knowledge with technology expertise, state-of-the-art tools and a uniform, global methodology to provide our clients with sound, experience-based advice. Through our network, we ensure the global reach needed to deal with even the most complex cases in even the most remote locations efficiently and consistently.
With an experienced team from various specialised disciplines and speaking 20 languages, we lend support to enterprises not just in the event of acute financial crimes, but also in the development of preventative measures.
We are connected to a network of 65 FTS departments in 35 countries with over 550 highly skilled professionals. In addition to the skills of our own specialists, we benefit from the experience and capabilities of the global PwC Forensics network, with its more than 3,000 investigators and forensic accountants in 75 countries.
Contact us
Partner and Forensic Services and Financial Crime Leader, PwC Switzerland
Tel: +41 58 792 17 60
Partner, Forensic Services, TIS and Global Client Partner United Nations, PwC Switzerland
Tel: +41 58 792 17 63
Director, Head of Forensic Technology Solutions, PwC Switzerland
Tel: +41 58 792 16 23
