Jessica Smith is a cofounder of Aletheian Labs and a veteran digital forensics expert with more than 20 years of experience.
Jessica directs the firm’s operations while continuing to consult on cases where the evidence is incomplete, disputed, or doesn’t make sense at first glance. Her work includes reconstructing deleted and fragmented files, tracing user activity across systems, and examining electronic evidence when authenticity is in question.
Jessica’s practice spans civil, criminal, and regulatory matters involving intellectual property theft, fraud, data loss, and allegations of evidence destruction. An experienced testifying expert, she has provided testimony in court, arbitration, and deposition, including international disputes and criminal proceedings.
Before cofounding Aletheian Labs, Jessica held senior leadership roles at Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 and Stroz Friedberg. There, she led forensic teams and managed complex investigations involving large and often fragmented datasets.
- Digital forensics and evidence reconstruction
- Intellectual property and trade secret disputes
- Internal and regulatory investigations
- Analysis of user activity and system behavior
- Expert witness testimony
Testified as a computer forensics expert in an international arbitration regarding the authenticity of electronic documents central to the dispute
Identified and reconstructed deleted, fragmented digital files containing DNA analysis results in a multiple homicide investigation and death penalty trial
Performed forensic analysis and testified in a military court martial involving the examination of computers used by both the defendant and the complainant
Evaluated allegations of data deletion and obstruction in securities fraud matters, including detailed review of user activity and system artifacts to determine what actions were taken
Led forensic analysis and data handling efforts in large-scale investigations involving multi-terabyte data collections across multiple jurisdictions, including work subject to EU data privacy requirements
Identified evidence of intentional data destruction through analysis of system activity and wiping tools in internal and regulatory investigations
