Data recovery is the process of retrieving important data lost or accidentally deleted. Data is very crucial to an organization since it is used as a reference tool. Therefore, organizations tend to increase storage space for their data devices. As a result, there are high chances of losing data in the process of transferring or storing information. A computer is a modern storage device for both personal and business data. For instance, important and sensitive data is stored in computers. This information is updated daily. In the period time of updating the data, an error can occur which can lead to the loss of data or erroneously deleted (Poblet, García-Cuesta, & Casanovas, 2018). However, most of the data loses are caused by human recklessness. Power outage, equipment failure, accidental data deletion, and natural disasters can also lead to data loss. Data recovery needs to be placed to avoid loss of the important data. As a result, DigiFirm Investigation Company which is a company specializing in data crime investigation is hired by Andrea to investigate a case where fraud is detected. There is various software which is created to aid in recovering such data. In this report, we are going to discuss three of such data recovery software which includes Mac Keeper Files Recovery, Mac Undelete, and Recuva for Mac. The software is specifically used to recover data in Macintosh computers.

MacKeeper is used to detect malware software on a computer. If someone steals your laptop, MacKeeper can be used to trace the whereabouts of it. Therefore, to use the software, one is required to open an online account on Kromtech. You will be required to log in to your account using another computer. Any moment the thief connects your computer to the internet, MacKeeper will notify you through email its location. An insight snapshot will be sent to help in the investigation (Sampson, Adams, & Roche, 2018). MacKeeper anti-theft will collect the location of the computer collecting its IP address. Additionally, this software provides secure control of files stored in a hard disk. Files can be encrypted and hide with passwords. The software has a recovery feature in case you accidentally delete your files. There is a file shredder which is used to delete, and one needs them not to be seen by other parties. There is an automatic backup utility which synchronizes and stores copies of your files in an external storage device. MacKeeper also has cleaning utilities which aid in eliminating applications parts which are unwanted, cashed files and cleaning logs. Duplicate file finder is used to delete duplicated files to free some spaces on a computer. MacKeeper developers have 24/7 customer service which interacts with their customers through live chat, telephone, and email.

Mac Recovery is designed to recover Macintosh files including videos, documents, and music. It recovers data from accidental deletion, hardware break down and corruption related problems. Mac Recovery is capable of retrieving lost data even if it is emptied from trash. The software scans the entire computer or hard drive to ascertain if there are any hidden or emptied files in the trash (Starov, Zhou, Zhang, Miramirkhani, & Nikiforakis, 2018, April). After the files are retrieved, they can be easily reinstalled to the original file names. This means that even if you accidentally format a drive, you can easily recover the files previously found in it. In the process of a failed partition, data loss does not occur when Mac Recovery software is installed. The software can list files from botched partition if it is run through a computer. The new of Mc Recovery which is called Time Machine ensure data in the Mac computer is securely saved. In case machine backup drive has experienced file structure corruption, Time Machine will step in to restore all your files within the shortest time possible. Time Machine is used to provide extra functionality to a machine backup drive. Hard drives can be partitioned to accommodate multiple volumes of file storage. The storage systems can share the same location or have different location slots. In the case of sharing the same location, if data is lost will affect the other partitions. Corruption of data in any partition can lead to the inaccessibility by the other partitions. Mac Recovery software can be employed to rectify the problem. However, this method of data recovery

Recuva is a software product used to recover files lost unexpectedly. It includes all the properties of other recovery software. It scans a computer using all categories of files ranging from documents, images, music, emails, and archives. Additionally, it restores photos, videos, short messages, call history and essential notes in mobile phones from backed up files (Nahar, Ab Rahman, & Mohammad, 2018). Just like Mac Recovery software, it scans through an entire computer to see if there is any trash. However, it gives an allowance for preview if the user does not want to use to scan all the files. Recuva can restore deleted files either shallowly or deeply depending on the user preference.

All the recovery software discussed above are efficient when it comes to data recovery. However, they have several limitations. Only Mackeeper can trace lost computer using the location locator. However, MacKeeper cannot trace files removed from the trash like Recuva and Mac Recovery. In the case of Andrea, I would recommend the use of Mac Recovery software. This is because Mac Recovery software can trace all the deleted information from a computer. If the suspected activities are true, then Andrea is supposed to install Mac Recovery software in his working machine. He assigns each employee a login so that he can be able to trace logs of each employee. In case one employee steals intellectual property from the company, Andrea can be able to trace the exact employee who did the malicious activity. If the employee deletes his previous activities on a computer, Andrea can use the logs to track the activities done by the employee. However, this method can be ineffective if the employee knows how to clear trash. This is because when you delete files from trash, they cannot be recovered. If the employee understands the trick, he will continue to sell the intellectual property of the company. Recuva and MacKeeper can also be used as recovery tools. Recuva has similar capabilities as the Mac Recovery, however, it cannot trace deleted files in the trash. MacKeeper can even work better than Mac Recovery since it can trace the exact location of a computer if the employee works mobile. However, since the employee only uses one computer, it will be unnecessary to locate the location of the computer. However, the snapshot used by the MacKeeper can easily make suspected employee traced. Music production is in most cases produced out of network. This will make it hard to use MacKeeper.

References

Poblet, M., García-Cuesta, E., & Casanovas, P. (2018). Crowdsourcing roles, methods and tools for data-intensive disaster management. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(6), 1363-1379.

Sampson, W., Adams, A., & Roche, A. (2018). Data Recovery and Investigation from 8-inch Floppy Disk Media: Three Use Cases.

Starov, O., Zhou, Y., Zhang, X., Miramirkhani, N., & Nikiforakis, N. (2018, April). Betrayed by Your Dashboard: Discovering Malicious Campaigns via Web Analytics. In WWW(pp. 227-236).

Nahar, N. F. A. M., Ab Rahman, N. H., & Mohammad, K. M. (2018). E-Raser: File Shredder Application With Content Replacement by Using Random Words Function. JOIV: International Journal on Informatics Visualization, 2(4-2), 313-317.