Chain of Custody

Summary

Documenting exactly who handled evidence, when, and what was done to it — essential for evidence to hold up if an incident ever leads to legal action, and good practice even when it doesn't.

How to Learn This

1Draft a simple chain of custody log template for a hypothetical piece of digital evidence.
2Learn why a broken chain of custody can render otherwise solid evidence inadmissible.
3Understand why this discipline matters even for internal-only investigations, as a good habit.

Digital Forensics Fundamentals

Memory & Disk Forensics Basics

More topics in Incident Response & Digital Forensics

Incident Response Lifecycle Incident Triage & Classification Containment, Eradication & Recovery Digital Forensics Fundamentals Memory & Disk Forensics Basics Malware Analysis Basics Post-Incident Reporting Tabletop Exercises

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