Question: Are forensic data-collection procedures defined to preserve chain of custody during investigations?

Why This Matters

Improper evidence handling can invalidate investigations. A documented forensic procedure ensures data integrity for legal, regulatory, and insurance purposes.

Maturity

0 — Unaware
No forensic process or tools.

1 — Ad Hoc
Analysts copy files manually; no integrity check.

2 — Defined
Collection SOP created; hashing required.

3 — Managed
Dedicated tools used; chain-of-custody forms maintained.

4 — Integrated
Central evidence vault with access control and audit trail.

5 — Optimized
Automated collection and hash-verification within SOAR.

How to Level Up

From → To	Actions
0 → 1	Designate who collects evidence and how.
1 → 2	Write SOP with tools and hashing steps.
2 → 3	Introduce chain-of-custody form template.
3 → 4	Store evidence in secure vault with ACLs.
4 → 5	Integrate automated hash check and audit alerts.

Enablers

People: IR Lead, Forensic Analyst, Legal Advisor
Process: Evidence collection → hash → log → store
Technology: FTK Imager, Autopsy, MinIO object-lock

Evidence

SOP and chain-of-custody template
Sample evidence log with hash values
Access audit trail

KPIs

Evidence integrity check success %
Time from capture to storage
Number of unauthorized access attempts

Low-Cost / Open-Source Options (MSME)

Purpose	Tool	Notes
Imaging	FTK Imager Lite / dd	Disk acquisition
Analysis	Autopsy	Timeline and artifacts
Vault	MinIO WORM	Immutable storage

Common Pitfalls

No hash verification
Evidence overwritten by cleanup scripts
Untracked copies on analyst laptops

Compliance Mapping

Standard	Clauses / Notes
ISO/IEC 27001:2022	A.5.24 (Incident Evidence)
CERT-In 2022	Section 33 (Forensic Preservation)
DPDP Act 2023	Sec 10 (Accountability)
NIST CSF 2.0	RS.AN / RC.CO
NIRMATA Mapping	IR-Q06 assures legally defensible evidence collection.