Ibas (company)

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Ibas ASA (OSE: IBAS) (an acronym of its former name, Instrumentbyrået AS, "The Instrument Bureau") is a Norwegian company founded in 1978 and is Europe's largest business in the market of data recovery, data erasure and computer forensics. It is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

Headquartered in the town of Kongsvinger, in Hedmark county, Ibas has subsidiaries in Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Poland, and Singapore, with a total of roughly 90 employees combined (not counting Vogon—see below). The company is mostly known for performing difficult data recovery and computer forensics services at its on-site laboratories, using its in-house customized hardware and software tools, but also develops and sells software allowing customers to securely erase data at their own locations.

In the spring of 2005, Ibas announced that it was acquiring privately owned British competitor Vogon International Ltd (founded in 1985), which was planned to continue as a separate company until January 2006 when it would be integrated into Ibas. At the time of the acquisition, Vogon had roughly 80 employees spread over its five locations: Oxfordshire, England (headquarters); Munich and Cologne, Germany; Oslo, Norway; and Oklahoma, USA (the non-UK offices being wholly owned subsidiaries).

At 31 January 2006 it was announced that a division of Kroll Inc., Kroll Ontrack had completed the acquisition of Ibas AS.