Journal:CustodyBlock: A distributed chain of custody evidence framework
| Full article title | CustodyBlock: A distributed chain of custody evidence framework |
|---|---|
| Journal | Information |
| Author(s) | Alruwaili, Fahad F. |
| Author affiliation(s) | Shaqra University |
| Primary contact | Email: alruwaili at su dot edu dot sa |
| Year published | 2021 |
| Volume and issue | 12(2) |
| Article # | 88 |
| DOI | 10.3390/info12020088 |
| ISSN | 2078-2489 |
| Distribution license | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| Website | https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/12/2/88/htm |
| Download | https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/12/2/88/pdf (PDF) |
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This article should be considered a work in progress and incomplete. Consider this article incomplete until this notice is removed. |
Abstract
With the increasing number of cybercrimes, the digital forensics team has no choice but to implement more robust and resilient evidence-handling mechanisms. The capturing of digital evidence, which is a tangible and probative piece of information that can be presented in court and used in trial, is challenging due to its volatility and the possible effects of improper handling procedures. When computer systems get compromised, digital forensics comes into play to analyze, discover, extract, and preserve all relevant evidence. Therefore, it is imperative to maintain efficient evidence management to guarantee the credibility and admissibility of digital evidence in a court of law. A critical component of this process is to utilize an adequate chain of custody (CoC) approach to preserve the evidence in its original state from compromise and/or contamination. In this paper, a practical and secure CustodyBlock (CB) model using private blockchain protocol and smart contracts to support the control, transfer, analysis, and preservation monitoring is proposed. The smart contracts in CB are utilized to enhance the model automation process for better and more secure evidence preservation and handling. A further research direction in terms of implementing blockchain-based evidence management ecosystems, and the implications on other different areas, are discussed.
Keywords: forensics, cybersecurity, distributed ledger technology (DLT), smart contract, blockchain
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