Kris Haworth, head of the computer forensics lab at Deloitte and Touche in San Francisco, runs one of a growing number of private forensics labs. Kris Haworth pounded away at her keyboard, navigating a labyrinth of computer data in her search . . .
Kris Haworth, head of the computer forensics lab at Deloitte and Touche in San Francisco, runs one of a growing number of private forensics labs. Kris Haworth pounded away at her keyboard, navigating a labyrinth of computer data in her search for evidence. The board of directors for a $5 billion company suspected revenues were being inflated. It was up to Haworth to fish out incriminating e-mails thought to have been deleted.

Haworth, who runs Deloitte & Touche's computer forensics lab in San Francisco, is one of a growing number of private-sector cyber avengers, fighting computer crimes that the government is ill-equipped to investigate or that companies would rather not report.