Guidance Software, Inc. was a public company (

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

: GUID) founded in 1997. Headquartered in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

, the company developed and provided software solutions for digital investigations primarily in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

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, the

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Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, and the Asia/Pacific Rim. Guidance Software had offices in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

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and Washington, D.C. and employed approximately 371 employees. On September 14, 2017, the company was acquired by

OpenText OpenText Corporation (also written ''opentext'') is a Canadian company that develops and sells enterprise information management (EIM) software. OpenText, headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, is Canada's fourth-largest software company ...

. Best known for its EnCase digital investigations software, Guidance Software's product line was organized around four markets:

digital forensics Digital forensics (sometimes known as digital forensic science) is a branch of forensic science encompassing the recovery, investigation, examination and analysis of material found in digital devices, often in relation to mobile devices and comp ...

endpoint security Endpoint security or endpoint protection is an approach to the protection of computer networks that are remotely bridged to client devices. The connection of endpoint devices such as laptops, tablets, mobile phones, Internet-of-things device ...

analytics,

cyber security Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, the ...

incident response, and e-discovery. The company served law-enforcement and government agencies, as well as corporations in various industries, such as financial and insurance services, technology, defense contracting, telecom, pharmaceutical, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail. The company operated through four business segments: products, professional services, training and maintenance, and operates two certification programs for the EnCase Certified Examiner (EnCE) and EnCase Certified eDiscovery Practitioner (EnCEP) designations. In May 2010, the company completed the acquisition of Tableau, LLC. In February 2012, Guidance Software acquired CaseCentral.

Notable case mentions

Guidance Software has been noted in a number of high-profile use cases. In 2002, Guidance Software's EnCase was used in the murder trial of

David Westerfield Danielle van Dam (September 22, 1994 – February 2002) was an American girl from the Sabre Springs neighborhood of San Diego, California, who disappeared from her bedroom during the night of February 1–2, 2002. Her body was found by search ...

to examine his computers and disks to connect him to child pornography. That same year, EnCase was used by French police to uncover emails from now-convicted shoe bomber

Richard Colvin Reid Richard Colvin Reid (born 12 August 1973), also known as the "Shoe Bomber", is the perpetrator of the failed shoe bombing attempt on a transatlantic flight in 2001. Born to a father who was a career criminal, Reid converted to Islam as a young ...

. In 2004, EnCase software was used in the trial of now convicted

Scott Peterson Scott Lee Peterson (born October 24, 1972) is an American convicted murderer. In 2004, he was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, Laci, who was pregnant at the time, and the second-degree murder of their unborn son, Conner, in Mod ...

for the murder of his wife,

Laci Peterson The ''lac'' repressor (LacI) is a DNA-binding protein that inhibits the expression of genes coding for proteins involved in the metabolism of lactose in bacteria. These genes are repressed when lactose is not available to the cell, ensuring that ...

. Computer forensic experts used EnCase to examine Peterson's five computer hard drives, which provided valuable evidence that he had shopped online for a boat, studied water currents, bought a gift for his mistress in the weeks leading up to his wife's death and showed interest in a computer map that included

Brooks Island Brooks Island Regional Preserve includes both the of Brooks Island above the low-tide line and of the surrounding bay. The only public access to the island is via an East Bay Regional Park District naturalist tour. Brooks Island is a mostly fla ...

, where his wife was later found. In 2005, American serial killer

Dennis Lynn Rader Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer known as BTK (an abbreviation he gave himself, for "bind, torture, kill"), the BTK Strangler or the BTK Killer. Between 1974 and 1991, he killed ten people in Wichita and Pa ...

(also known as the

BTK killer Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer known as BTK (an abbreviation he gave himself, for "bind, torture, kill"), the BTK Strangler or the BTK Killer. Between 1974 and 1991, he killed ten people in Wichita and Pa ...

) sent a floppy disk to FOX affiliate

KSAS-TV KSAS-TV (channel 24) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with Fox and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to Hutchinson-licensed Dabl affiliate KMTW (channel ...

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...

. Using EnCase, police were able to find

metadata Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...

embedded in a deleted

Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor, word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other pla ...

document that was, unbeknownst to Rader, on the disk. The metadata contained "Christ Lutheran Church", and the document was marked as last modified by "Dennis". A search of the church website turned up Dennis Rader as president of the congregation council. Police began surveillance of Rader. In 2011, following

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Online Entertainment's multiple security breaches, Sony said it would be working with Data Forté, Guidance Software and

Protiviti Protiviti Inc. (Protiviti) is a global consulting firm headquartered in Menlo Park and San Ramon, California, that provides consulting in internal audit, risk and compliance, technology, business processes, data analytics and finance. It ...

to resolve its

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

breach. And in May 2011, after the

killing Killing, Killings, or The Killing may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Killing'' (film), a 2018 Japanese film * ''The Killing'' (film), a 1956 film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick Television * ''The Killing'' (Danish TV serie ...

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until his death in 2011. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, his group is designated ...

, it was reported that an assault team of

Navy SEALs The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting sm ...

removed computers, hard drives, USB sticks and DVDs from bin Laden's compound for forensic analysis. Based on a job description supporting the task, Guidance Software's EnCase is believed to be the tool selected for analysis of the electronic gear. Later that year, Guidance Software's EnCase was noted as a forensic software tool used in the trial of

Casey Anthony Casey may refer to: Places Antarctica *Casey Station * Casey Range Australia * Casey, Australian Capital Territory * City of Casey, Melbourne * Division of Casey, electoral district for the House of Representatives Canada * Casey, Ontario * ...

, following the death of her daughter Caylee Anthony. Investigators used EnCase to search digital cameras and computers. Using the software, Detective Sandra Osborne of Orange County Sheriff's Department, found correctly and incorrectly spelled searches for the word “chloroform.”WFTV 9
, retrieved 30 June 2011

Key Management

John Colbert - CEO Victor Limongelli- CEO Shawn McCreight - CTO and Founder Frank Sansone - CFO Barry Plaga - CFO Sandy Gyenes - CHRO Mark Harrington - General Counsel

References

{{reflist, 30em Computer security software companies Digital forensics software Software companies based in California Technology companies based in Greater Los Angeles Multinational companies headquartered in the United States Companies based in Pasadena, California Software companies established in 1997 1997 establishments in California 2017 mergers and acquisitions Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq American subsidiaries of foreign companies Software companies of the United States