IMPROVING COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF VOLATILE NETWORK EVIDENCE

Abstract

Digital evidence has become extremely relevant in criminal, civil, and cybercrime cases. In criminal proceedings, the scope of digital evidence is broader, it is not limited to network activities alone, it may also include traditional evidence captured in digital format in specific cases. There seem to be conflicting views among digital forensic analysts on whether digital evidence can be flawlessly manipulated. Many people get the impression that this can be true. Furthermore, state that digital evidence can be tampered with or corrupted based on the manipulator’s skills and expertise, and the manipulation can be unnoticeable despite the knowledge and competence as well as special equipment of digital forensic experts. Internet of Things forensics, Social Media Forensics, and Cloud Forensics are other domains where digital evidence can be acquired and used to solve cybercrime. Digital evidence has the following volatile features; is latent, fragile, easy to modify, can easily traverse jurisdictional borders, is time-sensitive and machine-dependent in many ways, and maintaining it comes with unique challenges. The main conclusion from this paper is the volatility of digital evidence, solutions to manage the challenges of handling digital evidence, and the principles applied in the handling of digital evidence as well as other methods and tools used to preserve the integrity of digital evidence.