Understand the Chain of Custody

In a court of law, evidence is worthless if you can't prove its integrity. The Chain of Custody is the single most important process for ensuring that digital evidence is legally admissible. It is a meticulous, chronological paper trail that documents the entire lifecycle of a piece of evidence: who collected it, when and how it was stored, who it was transferred to, and who analyzed it. An unbroken chain proves to a judge and jury that the evidence presented in court is the exact same evidence seized at the crime scene, and that it has not been tampered with.