Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
This.can.create.a.situation.that.is.referred.to.as.
plausible.
deniability
,. meaning. that. it. is. possible. for. a. party. to. deny.
having. created. a. piece. of. electronic. evidence. based. on. the.
inability.to.prove.that.he.or.she.ever.had.access.to.it.
Creating. and. managing. data. in. a. way. that. maintains. its.
integrity,. documents. its. access,. and. monitors. any. changes.
allows. a. party. to. ensure. nonrepudiation.. Nonrepudiation.
is. simply. the. ability. to. prove,. based. on. carefully. controlled.
records.management.practices,.who.actually.had.access.and.
made.changes.to.or.saved.a.piece.of.electronic.evidence.
Similarly,.by.the.very.nature.of.electronic.data,.it.can.be.
relatively. easy,. whether. by. mistake. or. intentionally,. to. cor-
rupt.the.integrity.of.a.document..By.this.I.am.referring.to.the.
idea.that.it.can.be.dificult.to.prove.that.the.electronic.record.
in.question.is.in.fact.the.same.record.you.started.with..You.
need.to.somehow.be.able.to.document.that.the.record.has.
no.changes.of.any.kind.from.the.one.that.is.required.for.the.
case.at.hand.
In.this.section.we.consider.all.of.the.steps.you.as.an.indi-
vidual.or.an.organization.can.take.to.ensure.the.integrity.of.
data.such.that.the.possibility.of.plausible.deniability.is.mini-
mized.and.nonrepudiation.is.maximized..We.use.some.exam-
ples.to.illustrate.these.concepts.
As.we.discussed.earlier,.a.digital.record,.whether.a.docu-
ment,.a.picture,.a.spreadsheet,.or.anything.else,.is.created.
using. some. kind. of. user. interface. application.. Even. if. you.
are. using. the. most. basic. text. editor,. there. is. coding. going.
on. in. the. background. both. by. that. application. and. by. the.
computer. operating. system.. This. metadata. (or. data. about.
the.data).are.extremely.important.to.our.conversation.about.
integrity.and.ownership.
When.one.is.attempting.to.establish.the.ownership.of.an.
electronic.record,.understanding.when.and.where.it.was.cre-
ated.is.going.to.be.your.best.clue..The.data.are.contained.in.
the.metadata.of.every.electronic.record,.or.in.some.cases.the.
data.are.collected.by.the.operating.system.and.stored.in.some.
type.of.log.
