Law enforcement requires methods of digital evidence collection from victim or witness devices in a minimally invasive manner. Victims and witnesses are often concerned with minimizing the exposure of data on their phone to authorities. In this paper we describe a system for the secure submission of digital evidence and a micro-service for creating and monitoring chain of custody. These tools minimize device data exposure, encourage cooperation from victims and witnesses, and enforce accountability with regards to handling digital evidence.
My colleagues Nigel Campbell, Evan Stuart, Trevor Goodyear, Winston Messer, and I are happy to present our platform for remote evidence collection from volunteers. Digital Witness is an open source platform for evidence submission. Volunteers can upload media files from their phones while reducing the privacy invasion necessary with full disk capture currently used by law enforcement officers.