Server "Crashing"

A retail company's IT staff were unable to access their mail server which was hosted by a third party. The company first suspected something had gone awry when they received suspicious information about the server "crashing." To investigate, IT staff physically retrieved the server and forensic images were obtained from multiple hard drives contained inside. Forensic analysis revealed not only that configuration information for the hard drives had been destroyed, but the hard drives had been physically removed from the server then returned in the wrong order. Once the findings of forensic analysis were reported via expert report and deposition the plaintiff prevailed in federal court.