User:Digitalcharlie/Guidance Software

Guidance Software, Inc. provides software and hardware used to conduct digital investigations, as well as related professional services, training and certification. Headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., the company has offices in Washington, D.C., New York, London, San Francisco, Houston, Chicago and other locations. The company was founded in 1997 and went public in 2006.

Guidance Software is best known for EnCase, its technology platform for digital investigations.

In 2010, the company had revenues of $91.9 million, an increase of $17.0 million, or 23 percent, from $74.9 million in the year ended December 31, 2009. Guidance Software employs approximately 380 employees and conducted business in more than 75 countries.

According to the company, the explosion of digital data stored on laptops, networks and online requires a new approach to investigations. Guidance Software’s technology provides an investigative infrastructure that allows business and government customers to investigate human resources matters, allegations of fraud, suspicious network activity and defend organization’s data with forensically sound solutions. Not only are laptops, desktops and servers important in investigations, mobile devices including cell phones and tablets are increasingly important. Detective Andy Kleinick, Officer-in-Charge at the Los Angeles Police Department Computer Crimes Unit, said “As we do digital investigations, we're encountering more Apple devices including iPads and iPhones” in a press release.

The company’s software is judicially accepted, meaning that digital evidence gathered by EnCase software is often used in cases and courts say the evidence is valid.

Guidance Software solutions cover a variety of competitive technology markets including forensics, e-discovery and data security.

The company says it has more than 30,000 users and more than 800 enterprise customers worldwide including half of the Fortune 100.

KMWorld Magazine named Guidance Software on its Top 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management list.

Digital Forensics

Supporting the forensics community of law enforcement, forensic consultants, private investigators, as well as businesses, EnCase Forensic software and Tableau forensic hardware are the gold standard in digital forensics. Guidance Software’s Forensic Business Unit, formed after Guidance Software acquired Tableau, LLC, is focused on delivering dependable tools to gather evidence and other data.

In 2011, SC Magazine named Guidance Software’s EnCase Forensic “Best Forensics Tool” for the second year in a row.

E-Discovery

Supporting legal endeavors, EnCase eDiscovery delivers a new approach for effective e-discovery. Guidance Software’s EnCase® eDiscovery provides a single, unified solution that addresses all of the stages of the electronic discovery process that organizations want to bring in house. In just nine months of using EnCase eDiscovery for in-house e-discovery, Novelis, Inc. saved more than $1.5 million in service provider fees.

To help customers throughout their e-discovery process, Guidance Software employs a team of attorneys who work as “e-discovery evangelists” teaming with corporate legal departments seeking to implement defensible in-house eDiscovery processes in the United States, Canada and Europe.

The company also publishes a digital magazine called Real eDiscovery Magazine to help educate legal and IT teams on bringing e-discovery in-house and on other e-discovery topics.

Cybersecurity

Guidance Software is also involved in the cybersecurity space. Its EnCase Cybersecurity is designed to expose and mitigate internal and external risks and threats which evade traditional information security solutions.

IT Security Analyst Richard Stiennon wrote in Forbes, “Tools such as … Guidance Software … should be deployed immediately.”

In Government Security News, Guidance Software's Anthony di Bello wrote about how cyber forensics can deter advanced persistent threats.

In August 2010, Guidance Software teamed up with Lofty Perch, Inc. to help organizations - such as those in the utilities and energy space - quickly expose, respond to and recover from security incidents including advanced persistent threats. Lofty Perch will use Guidance Software EnCase Cybersecurity to give companies the power to discover malicious or improper files and expedite restorative activities in industrial automation environments through the industry's first forensic-based critical infrastructure security solution.

Training, Certification and Professional Services

Not only supporting the products customers buy from Guidance Software, its training, certifications and professional services are important parts of its. More than 6,000 people are trained annually at Guidance Software training centers, online and at authorized training partner locations worldwide.

Through training, forensic experts, e-discovery practitioners, and security specialists can also earn coveted, industry-standard certifications. The EnCE program certifies the competency of public and private sector employees in the best practices of computer forensic investigations and in the proper use of EnCase while conducting such investigations. Law enforcement and corporations recognize the EnCE program as a symbol of in-depth computer forensics knowledge, and EnCE certification illustrates that an investigator is a skilled computer examiner. The EnCase Certified eDiscovery Practitioner (EnCEP) certification certifies private and public sector professionals in the use of Guidance Software’s EnCase eDiscovery software, as well as their proficiency in eDiscovery planning, project management and best practices.

The company also offers professional services for business process best practices, incident response and software implementation.