Search

Cybercrime investigations rely heavily on digital evidence to establish links between suspects and the criminal conduct they are allegedly involved in. As a result, digital evidence must be protected since it is complex, volatile, and susceptible to alteration. In the digital evidence method, the chain of custody (CoC) is essential. As a result of the CoC, it is possible to establish that the evidence was never tampered with. Due to the inherent uncertainty of digital evidence, the trustworthiness of the CoC cannot be judged at this time. It is the duty of forensic examiners to challenge this inclination and publicly admit the inherent ambiguity in whatever evidence they use to make their decisions. This article suggests a new paradigm for maintaining the integrity of digital evidence in order to overcome these challenges. To handle the uncertainty generated by error-prone technologies while dealing with CoC documents, the new paradigm used a fuzzy hash inside the blockchain data structure. Traditional hashing methods are only able to tell whether two inputs are precisely the same or not because they are sensitive to even the smallest input changes. Using fuzzy hash functions, we can figure out how dissimilar two images are by comparing their similarities. As an example of how this paradigm may be applied to computer systems and make digital investigations more successful, we utilize image forensics as the focus of an in-depth look at how it works.

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is spreading around the world, representing a global pandemic. In this context, governments from all around the world suspended all education, industry and business activities, alongside restricting the movement of people. Nevertheless, during this period, the activity of the law enforcement and the forensic investigators never stopped. At the present time, clinical and forensic autopsies of SARS-CoV-2 virus-positive cases, as well as handling of potentially infected biological samples in forensic practice have given guidance. However, less attention has been given to the development of specific adjustments to the existing crime scene investigation protocols and procedures for this exceptional time. This manuscript aims to share the methods and strategies adopted for the investigation of high priority criminal cases during the pandemic. Furthermore, other pandemic-related processes are critically explored, in order to propose adjustments for any forensic services to be prepared to face similar challenges in the future. The overall goal of this manuscript is to provide a summary of the main measures and the procedures developed to make the operations possible, while safeguarding the technicians in the field and the activity in the forensic laboratory. In order to minimize the risk of infection for personnel, adjustments to the standard practice have been proposed for each of the different phases of crime scene management, i.e. CSI call policy, equipment preparation, working groups, procedure at the scene, chain of custody and analyses of the evidence at the forensic lab. As this is a current study, based on limited cases and limited sources in the literature, changes and updates to the indications provided in this paper may be needed in the near future, according to new virologic data epidemiological trends.

Aside from the primary objective of finding potential digital evidence, preserving the integrity of the evidence and maintaining proper chain of custody are also equal priorities for an investigator to ensure admissibility of evidence in the court of law. Advanced mobile forensic techniques pose a serious challenge in achieving the latter due to the complexity of the process and possibility of alteration in the state of the device during data acquisition. Hence efforts are made to understand the critical issues faced by the investigators while employing advanced mobile forensic techniques, which may be invasive or destructive. A standardised investigative process is presented in this paper which may act as a guide to investigators, prosecutors and judicial officers dealing with digital evidence in India.

For decades, assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures have been performed manually thanks to the meticulous work of skilled embryologists. Recently, new technologies have been developed with three main scopes: improving embryo culture conditions; making diagnostic evaluations more consistent and reliable; and allowing ART procedures to become progressively less subjective and operator-dependent. This review aimed to answer the following questions: is automation likely to be successfully incorporated into the in vitro fertilization laboratory and clinical ART in the future? If so, would such automation result in improved outcomes in ART? An electronic search of PubMed was performed to identify articles in English language that addressed automation in ART. Studies were classified in decreasing categories: randomized controlled trials; prospective controlled trials; prospective noncontrolled trials; retrospective studies; and experimental studies. Research and development data from investigators were included. There are a number of separate platforms that have been developed until now to address different parts of the ART process: gradual change of embryo culture medium; noninvasive embryo monitoring with time-lapse or metabolome analysis; and automated vitrification. It is conceivable that future automation enhancements in the in vitro fertilization laboratory may improve consistency and throughput and reduce the risk of human error associated with the performance of repetitive tasks. Nevertheless, a need remains for a platform able to integrate all separate technologies, capable of successfully interconnecting them in a way that assures continued chain of custody for the gametes and embryos. Moreover, controlled trials will be fundamental to demonstrate the usefulness of automation in ART.

The Chain of Custody is an intrinsic part of any inspection. Maintaining and evaluating the integrity of evidence procured from a crime scene is an important part that needs to be done properly by following a certain set of protocols to make the evidence admissible in the court. Keeping track of the evidence right from the moment it was collected from the crime scene till the time it reaches court is also a major task. It is important for the investigator to know how, where and who handles the evidence during analysis at each phase in order to safeguard the integrity of the evidence. Over a period of time, various tools and technologies have been created to handle evidence. Researchers from across the globe have presented various techniques on how evidence should be handled. Many researchers have even incorporated blockchain technology with the chain of custody or life cycle of evidence to make the process stronger. The growth in this domain has been at a rapid pace. This paper presents a method on “Maintaining and Evaluating the Integrity of a Digital Evidence in Chain of Custody” using a global positioning system. The methodology focuses on the use of global positioning system tags or chips which when embedded with the collected evidence enables an investigator to track the evidence throughout its life cycle. The proposed methodology aims to help the investigators to keep track of the evidence throughout its life cycle using very basic tools like FTK Imager and technology like a global positioning system.&nbsp

The global Covid-19 pandemic has forced forensic dentists to improve infection control methods. This search investigated the practical utilization of different 3D scanners to record and to analyze bite marks in the skin- and inanimate objects with this aim in mind. A systematic review of the literature using keywords like "human bite mark", "bite mark analyzes", "3D analyzes", "3D scanning", "forensic odontology", and "forensic dentistry" was performed in three scientific databases: MEDLINEOvid®, Pubmed® and Google Scholar. The initial search yielded 263 full-text articles, of which 15 were considered eligible and current within the last 10 years. 3D scanners and computer-assisted human bite mark analyzes showed potential advantages and can be effectively used in forensic odontology on skin and inanimate objects. These technologies minimize the number of people being exposed to pathogens, simplify the chain of evidence, facilitate immediate information exchange between the team members and enable the virtual presentation of the expert witnesses in a court of law.

A produção de provas, hodiernamente, não se dá de forma exclusivamente física, mudando a forma de atuação do direito processual. Assim, as provas digitais surgem como um avanço tecnológico, permitindo que meios de provas, antes indisponíveis, estejam hoje ao alcance de investigadores e partes processuais, contribuindo para uma maior celeridade processual. Pretende-se, neste trabalho, demonstrar como a prova digital é utilizada no direito formal e material brasileiro, quais são os seus princípios e discutir a questão da autenticidade e da integridade das provas, destacando a importância da cadeia de custódia digital para a garantia de uma prova idônea e válida processualmente.

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures are mostly performed manually and require meticulous attention to details and precision in handling and timing. Automation of ART procedures would allow achieving standardization and reducing performance variability, the cost of medical treatment, and the risk of human error. Some ART diagnostic devices are already available and offer objective tools of evaluation. However, automation of the entire spectrum of ART procedures is yet to come and can only be imagined as a platform capable of integrating all the separate technologies, successfully interconnecting them to guarantee a continued chain of custody of the gametes and embryos. The present update seeks to review the current potential for automation within the in vitro fertilization laboratory, with attention to sperm and oocyte manipulation and selection and to oocyte insemination with standard in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection. An electronic search of PubMed was performed to identify articles in English that addressed automation in ART. Studies were classified in categories as randomized controlled trials, prospective controlled trials, prospective noncontrolled trials, retrospective studies, and experimental studies. Research and development data from the authors are included.

Kejahatan konvensional yang terekam kamera CCTV (Closed Circuit Televison) semakin meningkat, setiap pelaku kejahatan yang terbukti melakukan tindak pidana tertentu akan dihukum sesuai dengan peraturan perundang-undangan. Permasalahannya, adalah bagaimana sebuah kasus yang terekam pada kamera CCTV dapat dijadikan sebagai alat bukti digital. Bukti digital berkaitan erat dalam memastikan keamanan, privasi dan integritas data saat mengikuti tahapan proses identifikasi digital forensik. Tahap identifikasi menggunakan metode NIST (National Institute of Standarts Technolog) digunakan untuk investigasi dalam mencari informasi terkait metadata pada rekaman kamera CCTV agar dapat memberikan informasi terstruktur, menggambarkan serta mengolah sebuah informasi yang didapat dari sumber investigasi digital forensik dapat di implementasikan kedalam dokumen Chain of Custody yang bertujuan untuk dapat digunakan sebagai alat bukti digital yang sah dalam pengadilan

Introduction After a vehicle rollover led to the death of a military member in Central Africa in 2018, it became apparent there was a significant gap in the capability to collect toxicology samples of Service Members involved in accidents and mishaps at remote Special Operations Forces locations in Africa. Multiple misconceptions surrounding sample collection, procedures for laboratory evaluation, and methods for shipment signaled the importance of establishing a procedure and a plan to provide the necessary medical inventory to properly collect and ship samples. Materials and Methods The Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA) Surgeon’s Office gathered the appropriate supplies for collection of forensic toxicology samples, and simultaneously developed a step-by-step checklist to safely and correctly perform urine and blood collection. The procedures were further improved after the completion of cognitive interviews with a Navy corpsman and Army Civil Affairs medic. Multiple shipping iterations occurred to ensure safe movement and arrival of samples at Armed Forces Medical Examiner System Dover AFB. Two Separate Specimens for Accident Forensic Toxicology Investigation Kits were generated to accommodate personnel typically associated with accidents involving vehicles and aircraft. Results SOCAFRICA’s toxicology kit supports legal and medical chain of custody requirements for investigations, and provides deployed forces in Africa with a mechanism to collect and ship samples from Africa to Dover AFB. The kits are provided to ensure these samples are successfully analyzed, thereby removing any ambiguity surrounding an accident or mishap. Conclusion SOCAFRICA established a prepared kit with all of the materials for sample collection, accompanied by step-by-step descriptions of the procedure, and clear guidance on the proper completion of the requisite paperwork that meets medico-legal requirements.

O objetivo desse estudo foi analisar a capacidade das indústrias moveleiras da região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro, em atender aos requisitos das certificações de cadeia de custódia do Forest Council Stewardship (FSC). Os dados foram coletados através da aplicação de questionários contendo informações sobre a certificação florestal (administração participativa, capacitação dos funcionários, documentação legal da empresa, fornecedores certificados, rastreabilidade da matéria-prima e relatório de movimentação de certificação). Os questionários foram preenchidos durante visitas às empresas, respondidos pelo responsável do setor de projeto e produção. Os requisitos “disposição de licenças e outros documentos legais”, “disponibilidade de um responsável pelo processo de certificação de cadeia de custódia” e “capacitação de funcionários”, que necessitam de custos e que exigem procedimentos burocráticos para cumprimento, foram os que mais interferiram para que as empresas não obtivessem o certificado de cadeia de custódia. O requisito-chave “rastreabilidade da matéria-prima” não apresentou complexidade de cumprimento, visto que todas as indústrias afirmaram ter capacidade em atendê-lo. Em relação à norma de certificação de cadeia de custódia, a maioria das indústrias moveleiras da região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro consegue cumprir os requisitos exigidos.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the SVLK Timber Legality and Verification System, FSC Chain of Custody, PEFC Sustainable Forest Management for wood and wood-based products on the competitiveness of the wood industry in Central Java. This research was conducted in several companies that process wood or use wood as the main material in Central Java with a total of 300 respondents. The respondents of this study are wood industry employees as top management, managers and staff who have been implementing SVLK, FSC, PEFC for at least 2 years. The background of this study is due to the lack of PEFC, FSC and SVLK research on the wood industry in Indonesia's Central Java province. Data collection was carried out by distributing electronic questionnaires online during January 2020 and analyzing data processing using Structural Equation Model (SEM) and Linear Structural Model (LISREL) software version 8.70. The analysis shows that the application of SVLK, FSC Chain of Custody, PEFC Sustainable Forest Management significantly and positively affects the company's competitiveness such as increased customer satisfaction, increased sales and decreased customer complaints.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the implementation of the FSC-STD-40-004 V3-0 FSC-STD-40-004 Chain of Custody Forest Stewardship Council (CoC FSC) on business Performance. This research was conducted in several companies that use paper material in Banten Province of Indonesia with 155 respondents from 15 companies that have implemented the FSC CoC Management System for at least 5 years. The research background is due to lack of research on the benefits of CoC FSC in companies in the Banten Province of Indonesia. The data collection was carried out by distributing questionnaires on april until may 2019 and analyzing data processing use Structural Equation Model (SEM) and software Linear Structural Model (LISREL) version 8.70. The results show that the implementation of the CoC FSC Management System significantly influenced business performance such as increase customer satisfaction index, increase sales, increase productivity and safety and employee satisfaction.

Digitization leads to unarguable high speed processing but our data is becoming the soft target for many types of cybercrimes. Even though digital forensic investigation is growing to recover volatile and non-volatile data from suspicious locations, manual investigation for evidence acquisition and proving the admissible evidential artifacts is still tedious and time consuming. Automation in this field of digital forensic investigation is the need of the hour to reduce large interactions with humans and to avoid slowing down of investigation process in the pace of growing digital crimes. The human-like behavior depicted by the Machine Learning (ML) to support automation in digital forensic investigation and to help forensic investigators at various stages of digital investigation is the motivation for the proposed work. This paper proposes a machine learning forensics prototype to predict the fraudulent emails in advance to avoid victimization of cyber-crimes. The model applies supervised machine learning technique through an algorithm of Enhanced Forensics Fuzzy C-Means Clustering (EFFCM). The fraudulent components are identified and chain of custody is reported in the training and testing phases performed on Enron email dataset through Weka tool in Cloud environment. The results are comparatively presented in the variations of accuracy in training and testing data partitions and in email application. The prototype presented in this paper can greatly aid the automation in digital forensic investigation for the prediction of fraudulent emails.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the implementation of ISO 38200:2018 to business competitiveness for wood industries. This research was conducted in several companies that use woods in central java of Indonesia with 163 respondents of companies that have plan to implement the ISO 38200:2018. The research background is due to lack of research on the benefits of ISO 38200:2018 in wood companies in Central Java Province of Indonesia. The data collection was carried out by distributing questionnaires on september until october 2019 and analyzing data processing use Structural Equation Model (SEM) and software Linear Structural Model (LISREL) version 8.70. The results show that the implementation of ISO 38200:2018 has significantly influenced business competitiveness such as increase customer satisfaction index, increase sales, increase productivity and safety and employee satisfaction.

Computer crime has 2 types of evidence, namely: physical evidence and digital evidence. Storage on physical evidence requires a special space that can hold physical evidence. However, a system that can store and manage physical evidence is needed.The current problem is the absence of a concept of storing physical evidence and its documentation (Chain of Custody). Management of Physical Evidence is proposed as a solution to solve the problem. This concept is in the form of a Physical Evidence Management System and Chain of Custody by taking the analogy of a Data Inventory. Problems with Physical Evidence Management require a Management System for Physical Evidence that is suitable for use in the UII Digital Forensics Laboratory. This research has successfully implemented the concept of Data Inventory. It is expected that with the concept of Physical Evidence Management the control of physical evidence and all activities related to it can be maintained and documented properly.

Over the past eight years, due diligence has become an increasingly important component of supply chain management for “conflict minerals” such as tantalum and tin. The due diligence concept has been incorporated into regulatory requirements and industry standards as far as mineral sourcing from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the wider East-Central African Great Lakes region is concerned. The present study investigates how this development is reflected in the trade data of tantalum and tin ore concentrates sourced from the region. The analysis is based on international import data reported by smelter countries covering the 2006–2017 period and calibrated against a supply chain framework of regionally aggregated tantalum and tin producer and transit countries. International imports of tantalum and tin ore concentrates from the Great Lakes region show correlated trends for both commodities comprising a pre-regulatory period from 2006 to 2009, a transitional period of initial due diligence implementation from 2010 to 2012, and an on-going period of streamlined due diligence implementation starting in 2013. Tantalum and tin import reductions in 2010–2011 correlate in time with publication of the conflict mineral section of the Dodd-Frank act in the United States, a temporary ban of artisanal and small-scale mining in the DRC and a de facto embargo established by a number of international mineral buyers. Following a two-year transitional period, international tantalum and tin ore concentrate imports from the region progressively recover towards and beyond pre-Dodd-Frank act levels. The market structure of smelter countries sourcing tantalum from the region changes from a China-dominated monopsonistic situation prevailing from 2006 to 2012 towards a less concentrated international market in 2013–2017. This development correlates with the region's increasing world market share in tantalum mine production. In contrast, tin supply chains reflect an oligopsonistic market that does not change systematically through time. While aggregated international import and regional export data for tantalum and tin ore concentrates used to show strong discrepancies in the past, these data are in good agreement from 2013 onward. Mineral origin declarations show progressively increasing geological and logistical plausibility likely reflecting a reduction of intra-regional smuggling and more accurate chain of custody documentation. As such, international mineral trade data become more consistent with on-going implementation of due diligence.

Blockchain has been used primarily in cryptocurrency applications like Bitcoin and Ethereum. These use cases show the staying power of blockchain technology and suggest additional uses such as smart contracting. We suggest these use cases, while producing knowledge, do not forecast the future of blockchain. Learning-by-doing reveals the evolution of blockchain as a sociotechnical system, suggesting that there is more to learn. Predicting how sociotechnical systems will evolve is difficult, but historical and lexical analyses suggest two areas for blockchain growth. One is provenance, authentication through recording of ownership or other control state, applicable to jewels, real property, art works, food stuffs, designer items, and anything else where genuineness is valued. The other is chain-of-custody, proving that duty of care has been faithfully executed regarding living beings (children, people in legal custody, research subjects, research animals, pets), or that inanimate things (evidence, data, representations such as photographs) have not been tampered with.

This article aims to analyze the adoption of FSC Chain of Custody certification scheme in connection with the adoption of the main general meta-standards (e.g. ISO certifiable standards), in a challenging context such as that faced by Romanian forestry companies. Using a questionnaire-based survey covering a large number of recently certified firms, the study sheds light on the profile of these companies, the drivers of certification, its economic aspects, the perceived benefits, the intention to keep the Chain of Custody certification, as well as some aspects of the joint adoption of FSC Chain of Custody certifiable standards and general meta-standards. The findings show that companies in the sector use the FSC Chain of Custody certification scheme to maintain their external market and to improve their reputation in a context were the image of the Romanian forest sector has been questioned in the media. Premium price for certified products is pointed out by most of the respondents as one of the benefits, although the mentioned premium is below 5% for the majority of them. More than half of the companies have at least one type of ISO certification. Implications for scholars, managers and decisions markers are discussed in the article.

Advancements in Information Technology landscape over the past two decades have made the collection, preservation, and analysis of digital evidence an extremely important tool for solving cybercrimes and preparing court cases. Digital evidence plays an important role in cybercrime investigation, as it is used to link individuals with criminal activities. Thus it is of utmost importance to guarantee integrity, authenticity, and auditability of digital evidence as it moves along different levels of hierarchy in the chain of custody during cybercrime investigation. Modern day technology is more advanced in terms of portability and power. A huge amount of information is generated by billions of devices connected to the internet that needs to be stored and accessed, thus posing great challenges in maintaining the integrity and authenticity of digital evidence for its admissibility in the court of law. Handling digital evidences poses unique challenges because of the fact they are latent, volatile, fragile, can cross jurisdictional borders quickly and easily and in many cases can be time/machine dependent too. Thus guaranteeing the authenticity and legality of processes and procedures used to gather and transfer the evidence in a digital society is a real challenge. Blockchain technology's capability of enabling comprehensive view of transactions (events/actions) back to origination provides enormous promise for the forensic community. In this research we proposed Forensic-Chain: A Blockchain based Digital Forensics Chain of Custody, bringing integrity and tamper resistance to digital forensics chain of custody. We also provided Proof of Concept in Hyperledger Composer and evaluated its performance.

Until now, there has been little research on digital forensics in the IoT (Internet of Things)-based infrastructure. Current digital forensic tools, investigation frameworks, and processes cannot meet the heterogeneity and distribution characteristics of the IoT environment. These characteristics are a challenge for digital forensic investigators and law enforcement agencies. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a digital forensics framework for the IoT environment based on the blockchain technology. In the proposed framework, all communications of IoT devices are stored in the blockchain as transactions, thus making the existing chain of custody process easier and more powerful. By using the blockchain technology, the integrity of the data to be analyzed is ensured and security is strengthened, and the preservation of integrity is made more reliable by a decentralized method of integrity preservation. In addition, since the public distributed ledger is provided, participants in the forensic investigation—such as device users, manufacturers, investigators, and service providers—can confirm the investigation process transparently. We simulated the proposed model to support the proof of concept.

Enforced disappearances in Mexico are due to criminal violence, but also to the State’s negligence, and its corresponding authorities and institutions, that elude their legal functions of keeping and guarding unidentified bodies in order to guarantee the pertinent investigations. The incorrect application of procedures leads to the commission of illegalities that give rise to the loss of unidentified bodies, making impossible or difficult for the relatives of the victims to recover them. This situation lays the foundations for double disappearance in Mexico, based on the omission of state responsibilities or its acquiescence with criminal networks.

The advancement of Information and Communication Technologies has brought numerous facilities and benefits to society. In this environment, surrounded by technologies, data, and personal information, have become an essential and coveted tool for many sectors. In this scenario, where a large amount of data has been collected, stored, and shared, privacy concerns arise, especially when dealing with sensitive data such as health data. The information owner generally has no control over his information, which can bring serious consequences such as increases in health insurance prices or put the individual in an uncomfortable situation with disclosing his physical or mental health. While privacy regulations, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), make it clear that the information owner must have full control and management over their data, disparities have been observed in most systems and platforms. Therefore, they are often not able to give consent or have control and management over their data. For the users to exercise their right to privacy and have sufficient control over their data, they must know everything that happens to them, where their data is, and where they have been. It is necessary that the entire life cycle, from generation to deletion of data, is managed by its owner. To this end, this article presents an Information Chain of Custody Model based on Blockchain technology, which allows from the traceability of information to the offer of tools that will enable the effective management of data, offering total control to its owner. The result showed that the prototype was very useful in the traceability of the information. With that it became clear the technical feasibility of this research.

The digitalization process did not circumvent either railway domain. With new technology and new functionality, such as digital interlocking system, automated train operation, object recognition, GPS positioning, traditional railway domain got a vulnerability that can be exploited. Another issue is usage of CotS (Commercial-of-the-Shelf) hardware and software and openness of traditionally closed system. Most of published similar paper are focused on cyber security and security & safety model for securing of assessment in this kind of domain, but this paper will deal with this upcoming railway technology and digital investigation process in such kind of environment. Digital investigation process will be presented, but not only in ICS and SCADA system, but also in specific, railway environment. Framework for investigation process and for maintaining chain of custody in railway domain will be proposed.

Evidence management is crucial in the field of forensic science. Evidences obtained from a crime scene are important in solving the case and delivering justice to the parties involved. Hence, protecting these evidences from any form of alteration is of utmost important. Chain of Custody is the process which maintains the integrity of evidence. Inability to maintain the chain of custody will make the evidence inadmissible in court, eventually leading to the case dismissal. Digitalization of forensic evidence management system is a need of time as it is an environment friendly model. Blockchains are digitally distributed ledgers of transactions signed cryptographically in chronological order that are sorted into blocks and is completely open to anyone in the blockchain network. Hyperledger Fabric is a consortium blockchain framework created by the Linux foundation and is mainly used for enterprise use. Based on the concept of Hyperledger Fabric, present study aimed to create a framework and further propose an algorithm to implement Blockchain Technology to digitalize forensic evidence management system and maintain Chain of Custody.

Digital forensics investigation process begins with the acquisition, investigation until the presentation of investigation findings. Investigators are required to manage bits and pieces of digital evidence in the cloud and to correlate with evidence found in physical machines and network. The process could be made easy with a proper case management tool that is hosted in the web. The challenge of maintaining chain of custody, determining access to evidence, assignment of forensics investigator could be overcome when digital evidence is fully integrated in a single platform. Our proposed case management tool streamlines information gathering and integrates information on different platforms, shares information, tracks cases, and uploads data directly into a database. In addition, the case management tool facilitates the collaboration of investigators through sharing of forensics findings. These features allow case owner or administrator to track and monitor investigation progress in a forensically sound manner.

Forensic block chain is an emerging technique in the field of forensic science. It is a system integrated tool that helps in maintaining and representing the chain of custody, which ought to be maintained throughout the investigation. Forensic block chain is an approach wherein the investigators or law enforcement officials store the history of criminal case in a digitalized form on block chains which in turn stores the information on remote servers. The data regarding the criminal records are highly encrypted providing less probability for intruders to gain access into the system. Implementing artificial intelligence will help to manage and sort the data related to case records/criminal profile. AI helps in creating and analyzing a case report, and further processing of evidence. This will help the investigator to create more efficient hypothesis. Present study aims to link Artificial Intelligence to forensic block chain and develop a digitalize chain of custody of evidences that will help the forensic investigators to link the cases worldwide and help in solving crimes efficiently.

Supply chain management is often the most challenging part of any business that manufactures, sells goods, or provides services nowadays. Regardless of whether the operations are mostly physical or online, managing supply chains relies entirely on being able to manage shared information securely, efficiently and effectively. Managing the information within the context of a closely-knit supply chain offers the benefits of extra resilience and ability to recover quickly from major disturbances. The authors propose here the development of a blockchain enabled and Intelligent Agent supported supply chain community that will provide a secure, intelligent, responsive and sustainable operational partnership.

This chapter introduces distributed ledger technology (DLT), its main features, functions, and how different types of platforms are used to solve different challenges. The chapter includes two global supply chain use cases to highlight how different DLT platforms are being commercially used to build trust, data consistency and persistence through the chain of custody for materials as they transform along the supply chain from source to end-use end (and beyond to recycling in one case). Although these use cases are not specific to international security, they are used to manage risks that are similar to those related to treaties governing the non-proliferation of chemical, biological, and nuclear materials such as provenance of trade and movement of materials, and creating greater efficiencies and security in records management and data sharing.

Crime is on the rise in today's world and with the emergence of the digital world, a whole new aspect to crime is open. With the rise in crime, a number of investigations at various fronts is necessary to bring the culprits to justice. Digital forensic investigation is one such branch of these investigations that has been increasingly popular and mandatory for providing justice. One of the problems that hinders the efficient execution of the investigation is the possible tampering of evidence. In digital forensics, it is digital evidence. Tampering of such evidence can lead to wrong judgments and erroneous accusations and can lead the investigation to be inaccurate. It is a serious offence and the culprit needs to be identified before being dealt with.The current system in place is able to identify the team or the agency responsible for the discrepancy but recognizing the individual that is the true culprit is almost impossible. The solution we propose is to integrate Blockchain to record and store the changes during an ongoing investigation. The chain of custody can be determined easily if only authorized people are allowed to access and the records of the access are being stored. This helps in maintaining the integrity of the digital evidence that is vital to an investigation. The creator creates the blockchain after collecting the necessary evidence. The investigators of the case are allowed to access this evidence for further analysis after providing their ID for recording who is accessing the evidence.Only the creator will be allowed to delete the evidence. The integrity of the evidence is preserved because Blockchain is immutable.This solution aims to help aid investigations to move on the right track with the accurate evidence required to prove the accused guilty or not guilty. It helps to supervise and observe that none of the investigators are indulging in any malpractices.

There are global discussions recognising the need for more development aid with jurisdictions such as the EU unveiling increased foreign aid budget for 2021–27 to deliver large increase in aid spending and eliminating the bureaucratic barriers. However, this increased flexibility gives rise to growing concerns on where aid is sent and that whole chain of custody in terms of tracking, traceability, and reporting. The fear is monies are raised, approved, and sent, but there is uncertainly where and if those monies have reached the persons most in need of development aid. Also, for those that willingly contribute to aid development who want to have clear knowledge that funds were securely used for the correct purposes. Therefore more desire for openness, transparency, and method of governance for accurate monitoring and use of evaluation tools in development aid will help secure the chain of custody and for all to realise project outcomes. Recent studies have shown that the utilisation of technology presents opportunities for advancement and particularly the use of blockchain and its attributes of immutability, transparency, audit control through smart contracts, and security. However, the contribution of blockchain to increase transparency in development aid deliverables has received less attention within scholarly research. The aim of this chapter is to examine the viability of blockchain technology in delivering development aid in explaining these attributes of blockchain, some use cases, and applications and analysing data points that can support taking forwards as viable blockchain models.

Cybercrimes are exponentially rising in number and the forensic investigations are now being actively conducted to get to the root of problem. There are many challenges to conduct a smooth forensics investigation. It suffers from the problem of maintaining integrity, ownership, auditability and authenticity of digital evidence. In this work, we elaborately cover as to how blockchain can be used to tackle the challenges faced by forensic investigations. In particular, we propose a framework based on blockchain which can assist in maintaining Chain of Custody while preserving integrity, accountability and authenticity of the acquired digital evidence. We devise our own smart contracts for the execution of scripts under different circumstances as governed by the phases of forensic investigation. We conclude our work by discussing future research directions and open challenges for the same.

The digital witness concept is underpinned by the Internet of Things (IoT) which brings serious privacy challenges and concerns. Digital witnesses deliver digital evidence to authorised entities by means of a digital chain of custody. This chapter provides an alternative approach by giving users behind the digital witness, the ability to disclose or anonymise their identities by means of a decentralised identifier addressing privacy concerns. The model is scoped within a city environment to demonstrate the attacks and offences. A novel approach is used within a blockchain environment to authenticate and verify members by using zero-knowledge proofs within the digital witness ecosystem. The model is based on a self-sovereign approach which validates transactions in an unbiased manner, and the threat model prepares the groundwork for a mitigation strategy to counter measure the models’ threats. Further research suggestions are provided to encourage areas that need to be researched to expand on the concept.

Identification of data which is stored in the cloud is complicated than what we expect and collection of evidence which is robust, tamper-proof and stands in the court of law is one of the most challenging aspects of the whole procedure. The data for which the whole process is being executed can be reserved on the data-centers, can be placed anywhere across the globe. Feasibility of accessing the data on the physical drive is much less when we see the scenario of cloud storage and processing. Case studies, guidelines and advisories till date majorly describes those traditional processes i.e maintaining chain of custody, search and seizure, etc. But the principle concern are gathering the data, integrity and reliability of the data that is to be analyzed after seizure and Formation of essential requirements like, Cloud Infrastructure, instances, services to run upon and most important—Client, for testing the procedure. Infrastructure to be used, compatibility issues, guidelines and advisories have been finalized to achieve the primary aspects that is: Assess the nobility and dependability of the extracted information that is not compromised, tampered.

The pursuit of cybercrime in an IoT environment often requires complex investigations where the traditional digital forensics methodology may struggle to support the forensics investigators. This is due to the nature of the technologies such as RFID, sensors and cloud computing, used in IoT environments together with the huge volume and heterogeneous information and borderless cyber infrastructure, rising new challenges in modern digital forensics. In the last few years, many researches have been conducted discussing the challenges facing digital forensic investigators and the impact of these challenges bring upon the field. Some of these challenges include the ambiguity of data location, data acquisition, diversity of devices, various data types, volatility of data and the lack of adequate forensics tools. Moreover, while there are many technical challenges in IoT forensics, there are also non-technical challenges such as determining what are IoT devices, how to forensically acquire data and secure the chain of custody among other unexplored areas, including resources required for training or the type of applied forensics tools. A profound understanding of the challenges found in the literature will help the researchers in identifying future research directions and provide some guidelines to support forensics investigators. This study presents a succinct overview of IoT forensics challenges focusing on a typical smart home investigation and a comparison of the existing frameworks to conduct forensics investigations in the IoT environment.

Este estudo realiza uma reflxão sobre a preservação de documentos arquivísticos digitais em uma perspectiva sistêmica, pautada em padrões reconhecidos pela literatura científia. De tal forma, utilizase da visão holística para ressaltar a pertinência da preservação ser pensada em todo o ciclo de vida dos documentos. A metodologia parte do levantamento bibliográfio composto por artigos, livros e publicações técnicas, para assim, obter uma revisão narrativa. Ressalta-se que a preservação digital tem evoluído para novos patamares e requer o uso de padrões para implementar sistemas informatizados confiveis. Com isso, pode-se envolver todo o ciclo vital em uma cadeia de custódia ininterrupta capaz de assegurar a autenticidade dos documentos digitais. Por fi, defende-se uma abordagem sistêmico-holística, em que os documentos são planejados e produzidos tendo em vista a preservação e o acesso em longo prazo.

Este artigo apresenta uma proposta de modelagem conceitual da cadeia de custódia para os Registros Eletrônicos em Saúde (RES). O interesse em conhecer os critérios de autenticidade dos RES encaminhados dos serviços até o Portal do DATASUS gerou esta investigação. A pesquisa é exploratória e descritiva por meio de uma revisão sistemática da literatura e documental para prospecção e análise sobre autenticidade e preservação dos RES. A partir dos resultados encontrados foram identifiados os custodiadores e a proposta de modelagem da cadeia de custódia para o Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). Espera-se que os custodiadores modelados assimilem subsídios para a criação de repositórios digitais em saúde confiveis e recomenda-se a adoção e a incorporação dos processos de gestão arquivística de documentos articulados com os da TI.

With the development of internet technology, the era of big data with data explosion has come. As a result, the types and the amount of data that need to be processed in cybercrime investigations are increasing. It is a great challenge to find the clues or evidences of crime from the massive data. The emergence of big data technology has brought new directions for digital forensics investigations. It is of practical significance to integrate big data technology and digital forensics to crack down on cybercrime. This paper proposes a big data forensics framework which describes the process and related technologies. In addition, the challenges to realize this framework have been taken into consideration.

With the development of technology, the preservation of digital evidence becomes increasingly important in case investigations. To maintain the authenticity of an evidence, its entire lifecycle has to be recorded. In addition, traditional database technologies are not able to maintain the integrity and authenticity of digital evidence. In order to achieve authentication and integrity, as well as confidentiality, of digital evidence, we propose a protocol for digital evidence chain of custody based on revocable ciphertextpolicy attribute-based encryption, BLS signature, and blockchain technology. In our protocol, attribute-based encryption is used to achieve fine-grained access control and BLS signature is used to verify digital evidence. Besides, we use blockchain technology to ensure the integrity and traceability of digital evidence. Analysis and experimental results show that the proposed protocol, which well balances the privacy and the traceability, guarantees the integrity and validity of evidence.

The relationship between negative and positive connotations with regard to malware in the cloud is rarely investigated according to the prevailing literature. However, there is a significant relationship between the use of positive and negative connotations. A clear distinction between the two emanates when we use the originally considered malicious code, for positive connotation like in the case of capturing keystrokes in a proactive forensic purpose. This is done during the collection of digital evidence for Digital Forensic Readiness (DFR) purposes, in preparation of a Digital Forensic Investigation (DFI) process. The paper explores the problem of having to use the keystrokes for positive reasons as a piece of potential evidence through extraction and digitally preserving it as highlighted in ISO/IEC 27037: 2012 (security approaches) and ISO/IEC 27043: 2015 (legal connotations). In this paper, therefore, the authors present a technique of how DFR can be achieved through the collection of digital information from the originally considered malicious code. This is achieved without modifying the cloud operations or the infrastructure thereof, while preserving the integrity of digital information and possibly maintain the chain of custody at the same time. The paper proposes that the threshold of malicious code intrusion in the cloud can be transformed to an efficacious process of DFR through logical acquisition and digitally preserving keystrokes. The experiment-tested keystrokes have shown a significant approach that could achieve proactive forensics.

In the proceedings of the court of law, it is of vital importance that the digital evidences are produced untampered during the entire Chain of Custody (Coc) process. Recent advancements in computer technology have enabled hackers to compromise with the integrity of the evidences. In order to secure these evidences from such external agents we have proposed a Blockchain model. Unlike the traditional security systems, Blockchain Technology uses cryptographic hashing in which each block has a cryptographic hash of its previous block i.e., A growing list of records that are called Blocks. These blocks are secure and tamperproof. The idea of this work is to handle the digital evidence from the time it is retrieved to the point it is presented as an evidence in the court of law. It ensures safeguarding of the evidence during the entire Chain of Custody process, which is fundamental to the idea of digital forensics. The aim of Digital Forensics is to maintain evidences in their most original form while performing a structured investigation by the collection, identification and validation of the digital information for the purpose of reconstructing events from the past. The proposed system ensures integrity, traceability, authenticity and security of the evidences.

Forensic science plays a crucial role as a component in the criminal justice system. During criminal investigation, forensic labs are one of the key stakeholders which maintain the chain of custody of the physical evidence collected from the crime scene which need to be examined scientifically by forensic expert to provide testimony before the court. Forensic science is essential because no one can deny from their DNA, fingerprints impression, audio, video examination etc. This study aims to know about the problems police officials are facing in Forensic Criminal Investigation in district Peshawar. Investigation officers around the world are facing problems in forensic investigation in which the most crucial is the damaging the physical evidences on crime scene by the people before the arrival of investigation officers which eventually disturb the forensic examination process. Pakistan is not an exception in this regard. Police experiences problems in proper preservation of physical evidences from crime scene and its transportation to forensic lab; DNA records; lack of DNA labs; etc. which create hurdles in maintaining the criminal case with respect to forensics. A quantitative research was carried out by using 50 sample size of male Police Investigation officers through convenience sampling technique and data was collected through interview schedule. Research findings shows that investigation officers were facing numerous problems in conducting forensic criminal investigation in district Peshawar like problems in forensic training on crime scene; untrained investigator were damaging the physical evidence; lack of Crime Scene Mobile Van. Furthermore it was founded that DNA lab at Khyber Medical College (KMC) was not properly operational and Police were facing problems in coordination from other agencies like NADRA and KMC. This study recommends for the provision of crime scene mobile van to the investigators, creation of forensic training schools, and establishment of Forensic and DNA lab which is important to maintain the proper flow of forensic criminal investigation.

DNA analysis is the preferred and often considered to be one of the most reliable method in forensics and criminal investigation. Forensic DNA typing is utilised in a wide variety of cases for proving the guilt as well as to prove innocence. From lifting the exhibits at the crime scene or recovering the pieces of evidence from the victim or suspect, their transportation, laboratory analysis, and reporting while maintaining the chain of custody are the tasks which are taken care of by the investigating agency and forensic DNA analyst. All these steps should be free from contamination and cross-contamination. This chapter throws light on some of the critical aspects of forensic DNA analysis, along with a few real case studies to showcase the importance of forensic DNA examination. With practice, precaution, and precision, from the inception (origin of the DNA evidence) to the end (reporting and deposition in the court), the optimum potential of DNA evidence from the crime scene to conviction is discussed.

DNA profiling has been assuming a prominent role in the activities of the criminal justice system. Genetic technologies support criminal investigations, while also being seen as holding a highly valuable potential for producing evidence to be used in courts. This chapter has two main objectives: on the one hand, to describe and explain the ways that DNA technologies can be used in criminal investigation and turned into DNA evidence in criminal proceedings; on the other hand, this chapter aims to systematize the main lines of academic literature within the social sciences which have been developed to study the social implications and transformations of cultures and professional practices arising from the presence of DNA technology in the criminal justice system. Besides, the chapter also pays particular attention to the social nature of the high expectations associated to the “infallibility” of DNA technologies and how the media portrays the use of forensic genetics and further exacerbates such notions.

Forensic DNA analysis may be defined as the process of identification and individualisation of biological evidence for legal proceedings using DNA technology. It is used in both criminal and in civil cases. Due to dissimilarity in every crime scene and unpredictability of DNA samples collected from the crime scene, the analysis in Forensic Science Laboratories is a tough job for the DNA analyst/expert. This chapter briefly discusses the various aspects of ‘quality control’ in DNA forensics. The quality control (QC) in DNA testing is not limited to the quality of the testing laboratory but has to be taken into consideration during every step of the investigation. The chain of custody should be maintained throughout the process. The path of the DNA evidence from the crime scene to the courtroom is quite lengthy and intricate. Different QCs along the whole process shall assist in providing justice by eliminating the chances of errors and thus increasing the admissibility in the court of law.

Gender-based violence is an important problem in nowadays society. A huge number of women are killed every year, and those who survive often live in constant danger because of potential retaliation. In an effort to deal with this problem from a technological perspective, the UC3M4Safety task force has developed an innovative solution to detect stress or violence based on data obtained from smart wearable sensors. The goal is to use that information to trigger alarms and to be used as an admissible evidence in a court of law. The goal of this paper is to design a security architecture for the sensor system addressing all relevant security issues according to the European regulation in terms of data privacy and data protection (General Data Protection Regulation). The design tries to preserve the chain of custody of the data in order to facilitate its consideration as admissible evidence in court.

Evidence plays an extremely important role in legal proceedings, historical research, and diplomatic disputes. In recent years, more and more evidence data has been presented in the form of electronic data. Therefore, the extraction, organization, and validation of knowledge in electronic evidence also seem more and more important. In order to effectively organize the evidence data and construct the Chain of Evidence that can meet the practical needs, this paper uses Knowledge Graph based method to conduct relevance of evidence research. Firstly, through Knowledge Extraction, Knowledge Fusion, Knowledge Reasoning, the evidence data Knowledge Graph is constructed. After that, the Chain of Evidence will be built through evidence correlation and evidence influence evaluation, and finally different forms of knowledge presentation are carried out for different users. In this paper, the work and process of evidence chain association based on knowledge map are introduced, and the possible research direction in the future is prospected.