Digital Evidence: Standards and Principles

• NCJ Number: 218813
• Date Published: April 2000
• Length: 7 pages
• Corporate Author: Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence (SWGDE); International Organization on Digital Evidence (IOCE)
• Sale Source: US Dept of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Guideline
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: From Forensic Science Communications, V 2, N 2, April 2000; downloaded June 12, 2007.

Annotation

This document presents proposed standards for the exchange of digital evidence between sovereign nations, as well as international principles for the recovery of computer evidence that have been unanimously approved by delegates of the International Organization on Computer Evidence (IOCE) at the International Hi-Tech Crime and Forensics Conference in October 1999.

Abstract

The standards proposed in this document have been adopted as draft standards for U.S. law enforcement agencies. The standards have an international dimension because of criminals' use of various digital devices to commit crimes across jurisdictions. A perpetrator may be arrested and prosecuted in one country's jurisdiction, but because his/her alleged crimes involve multiple jurisdictions, digital evidence necessary for a successful prosecution may reside in another country. This requires that methods for recovering, preserving, and examining digital evidence be standardized across countries in order to ensure that digital evidence recovered and managed in one country will be admissible as evidence in a case prosecuted in another country. The standards are designed to ensure that digital evidence is collected, preserved, examined, and transferred in a manner that safeguards the accuracy and reliability of the evidence. This is done by specifying how law enforcement and forensic organizations must establish and maintain an effective quality control system according to internationally accepted standards. These proposed standards were developed by the Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence (SWGDE), which was established in February 1998 through a collaborative effort of the Federal Crime Laboratory Directors. SWGDE, as the U.S. component of standardization efforts conducted by the IOCE, was charged with the development of cross-disciplinary guidelines and standards for the recovery, preservation, and examination of digital evidence, including audio, imaging, and electronic devices.