Improving Chain of Custody in Forensic Investigation of Electronic Digital Systems

Authors: Pedro Luis Prospero Sanchez and Giuliano Giova
Abstract: Modern society demands products and services increasingly sophisticated and effective, a desire that has been met through the development of more powerful, reliable and cost-efficient electronic systems. The ubiquity of these systems makes the data often stored in them to be used as evidence to prove the truth of the facts discussed in lawsuits. However, usually, the chain of custody software is insufficient by itself to guarantee the courts the quality of those digital evidences. This paper analyzes the quality gap existing between complex inspected systems and generally a limited procedure is used to document forensic inspections, and then it proposes a method to improve the reliability of the chain of custody.