Project WATCHTOWER: Insider Threat Containment

MISSION REPORT: OPERATION WATCHTOWER

Target Entity: Corporate M&A Law Practice
Threat Vector: Malicious Insider (Departing Partner)
Asset Class: Client Lists & Deal Strategies

The Strategic Context

Law firms are fragile. Their value walks out the elevator every night. When a "Rainmaker" Partner leaves, they often try to take their "Book of Business" with them.

In this case, a Senior Partner resigning to join a direct competitor denied taking any data. However, the firm's management feared a massive loss of IP, specifically the draft contracts for three pending mega-mergers.

The Intervention: Forensic Lockdown

Intarmour was retained by the Executive Committee to secure the digital perimeter immediately upon the resignation notice.

Phase 1: The Snapshot Within minutes of authorization, we remotely imaged the Partner's laptop and mobile device without his knowledge, preserving the evidence state.

Phase 2: The Timeline Reconstruction Our forensic analysts built a timeline of activity. We found that 3 weeks prior to resignation, the Partner had installed a "Personal Dropbox" client hidden in a subfolder. He had initiated a sync of 45GB of data, including the firm's entire "Precedent Library" (the firm's crown jewels).

Phase 3: The Intercept The sync was 80% complete. We engaged a "Remote Wipe" of the corporate container on his mobile device and revoked his access tokens. We then provided the Managing Partner with the log files showing the timestamps of the theft.

The Operational Outcome

• Leverage: Confronted with the forensic evidence, the departing Partner capitulated. He agreed to a strict extended "Garden Leave" and signed an affidavit confirming the deletion of the stolen data.
• Asset Protection: The Precedent Library remained exclusive to the firm.
• Deterrence: The firm published a new (anonymized) policy on data monitoring, chilling future theft attempts.

Strategic Lesson: Trust is good. Logs are better.