The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Digital Evidence Chain of Custody: Navigating New Realities of Digital Forensics
Abstract
In the era of ubiquitous digital platforms and pervasive mobile device usage, digital evidence has become increasingly integral to civil and criminal justice systems. However, the unique characteristics of digital evidence present significant challenges to maintaining its integrity and ensuring its admissibility in legal proceedings. This paper explores the critical role of Chain of Custody (CoC) in digital forensics, a simple yet powerful process vital for ensuring the trustworthiness and security of digital evidence throughout its lifecycle. We investigate the theoretical foundations and practical implementations of CoC, categorizing contemporary practices into three main categories: Traditional Paper Trail, System-oriented, and Infrastructure-driven approaches. Through a comprehensive analysis, we evaluate these practices against key criteria, highlighting their strengths and limitations in preserving evidence integrity. This study offers an extensive review of existing CoC methodologies and underscores opportunities for future research aimed at enhancing the reliability and security of the digital investigation process.
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“manifest integrity is checked by Eq. ( 2), ensuring that every emitted artifact (inputs, plans, ROIs, intermediates, reports) is tamper-evident under independent re-computation [18,19].”
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Research works printed but not linked: 25
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Hameed, N. A. (2026) · International Journal of Intelligent Engineering and Systems · doi:10.22266/ijies2026.0831.27
Metadata
- Authors
- Nath, S., Summers, K., Baek, J., & Ahn, G.-J.
- Affiliations
- Arizona State University (US)
- Venue
- 2024 IEEE 6th International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems, and Applications (TPS-ISA)
- Publisher
- IEEE
- Published
- 2024-10-28
- Pages
- 11-20
- OpenAlex
- W4406461245
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 4
- FWCI
- 4.57
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems and Applications (TPS-ISA) (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Digital and Cyber Forensics
- Social Sciences › Law › Education, Law, and Society
- Social Sciences › Law › Legal processes and jurisprudence
- Keywords
- digital evidence, chain of custody, digital forensics, evidence integrity, digital evidence admissibility, paper trail, digital investigation
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Digital Evidence Chain of Custody: Navigating New Realities of Digital Forensics. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1109/tps-isa62245.2024.00012
- The paper
- Nath, S., Summers, K., Baek, J., & Ahn, G.-J. (2024). Digital Evidence Chain of Custody: Navigating New Realities of Digital Forensics. 2024 IEEE 6th International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems, and Applications (TPS-ISA). https://doi.org/10.1109/tps-isa62245.2024.00012
