Chain of custody of digital evidence in Brazil
what is needed, what is available, and why consider Blockchain?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70622/2236-8957.2025.643Keywords:
Blockchain, Chain of custody, Hash, Criminal procedure, Digital evidenceAbstract
This article examines how the current way of implementing the chain of custody in the country contributes to making digital data more vulnerable to being disregarded as evidence in legal proceedings, due to situations such as operational failures, procedural gaps, and the traditional method of establishing the timeline of access to, and manipulation of, evidence. Hash generation algorithms alone do not fully guarantee the integrity of digital evidence, as they lack the ability to affirm anything about the digital data regarding what happened to them before the actual application of the function on the input data. The possibility of exploring the properties of Blockchain technology is presented here to shape a reliable chain of custody of digital evidence which is compatible with the demands of the Brazilian criminal process. This is done in order to promote elements such as greater transparency in the management of digital evidence, the establishment of an accurate and reliable chronological history of access to evidence, as well as audit and accountability, in addition to the dematerialization of the chain of custody.
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