Forensic Evidence Packaging
Forensic evidence packaging in cybersecurity is the strict procedural process of securing, identifying, and documenting physical and digital evidence gathered during a cyber investigation to ensure its integrity and admissibility in legal proceedings.
Unlike standard data backup, forensic packaging focuses on "Chain of Custody"—proving that the evidence presented in court is the exact same data seized at the crime scene, without alteration or tampering. It involves both the physical handling of hardware and the logical encapsulation of digital data files using cryptographic controls.
The Core Objectives of Evidence Packaging
The primary goal is to protect the evidence from three specific threats:
Alteration: Preventing data from being modified (e.g., changing file timestamps).
Damage: Protecting hardware from physical shock, static electricity, or electromagnetic interference.
Contamination: Ensuring that the investigator’s own tools or external data do not mix with the seized data.
The Forensic Packaging Process
The process differs slightly between physical hardware (such as a laptop) and purely digital artifacts (such as a cloud server log), but the principles remain the same.
1. Identification and Labeling
Every piece of evidence must be uniquely identified immediately upon seizure.
Unique Case Number: Assigning a specific ID to the investigation.
Evidence Tagging: Attaching a physical tag or digital metadata header containing the item description, serial number, date/time of collection, and the collector's name.
Photography: Taking photos of the device's state (e.g., powered on/off, cable connections) before touching it.
2. Physical Evidence Packaging
When securing physical devices (hard drives, mobile phones, USBs), specific materials are used to prevent external manipulation.
Faraday Bags: Used for mobile devices to block cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth signals. This prevents the device from receiving a "remote wipe" command after seizure.
Anti-Static Bags: Used for exposed circuit boards and hard drives to prevent electrostatic discharge (ESD) from destroying the data chips.
Tamper-Evident Seals: Tape or seals placed across the opening of the evidence bag. If the seal is broken, it indicates potential tampering and renders the evidence inadmissible.
3. Digital Evidence Packaging (Logical)
For data that has no physical form (e.g., RAM dumps, virtual machine snapshots, or network logs), "packaging" involves cryptographic encapsulation.
Forensic Imaging: Creating a bit-for-bit copy of the data.
Hashing: Generating a cryptographic hash (MD5, SHA-256) of the original data before and after the copy. If the hashes match, the package is verified as an exact duplicate.
Write Blocking: Using hardware or software "write blockers" to ensure that the act of copying the data does not alter the original drive's metadata (such as "Last Accessed" dates).
The Chain of Custody
The Chain of Custody is the documentation log that tracks the evidence's life cycle. It is the most critical part of the packaging process. A broken chain of custody usually results in the evidence being excluded from court.
The documentation must answer:
Who collected the evidence?
When was it collected (precise timestamp)?
Where was it stored (e.g., a locked evidence locker)?
Who accessed it for analysis and why?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a copy and a forensic image? A standard copy (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) only copies the visible, active files and updates their timestamps. A forensic image is a bit-by-bit replica of the entire storage drive, including deleted files, slack space, and system metadata, without altering the original timestamps.
Why are Faraday bags used in forensic packaging? Faraday bags are shielded containers that block radio signals. They are essential for mobile phones and tablets to prevent them from connecting to a network. If a device connects to a network, it can be remotely wiped by the suspect or receive new data (like messages) that alter the state of the evidence.
What happens if the evidence seal is broken? If a tamper-evident seal is broken without documentation (e.g., an authorized investigator opening it for analysis and logging the action), the court will likely assume the evidence has been compromised. The defense attorney can argue that the data was planted or altered, thereby invalidating the evidence.
Does cloud data require forensic packaging? Yes. While you cannot put a cloud server in a bag, you must "package" the data by capturing logs and snapshots, hashing them immediately to prove they haven't changed since the moment of capture, and storing them in a secure, immutable storage bucket (WORM storage).
ThreatNG and Forensic Evidence Packaging
ThreatNG supports the principles of Forensic Evidence Packaging by acting as a digital preservation engine for the external attack surface. While traditional forensics involves physically bagging hardware, modern investigations require the "logical packaging" of ephemeral digital data. ThreatNG automates the collection, preservation, and documentation of external digital artifacts—such as dark web leaks, rogue subdomains, and reputational indicators—ensuring that this volatile evidence is captured securely and contextually before it disappears or changes.
By creating timestamped, immutable snapshots of the external environment, ThreatNG allows investigators to "bag and tag" the digital crime scene without altering the evidence or exposing themselves to the threats contained within it.
External Discovery as Evidence Identification
Forensic packaging begins with identifying all evidence relevant to the case. ThreatNG’s External Discovery engine ensures that the scope of the digital investigation is complete, preventing investigators from missing critical peripheral assets.
Recursive Infrastructure Mapping: The platform uses recursive discovery to trace an entity's digital lineage. It identifies not just the primary domain, but all connected subdomains, cloud buckets, and third-party dependencies. This creates a comprehensive "Evidence Inventory," ensuring that all related assets are identified and logged at the start of the forensic process.
Shadow Asset Identification: ThreatNG locates "Shadow IT" and forgotten development servers, which often serve as entry points for attacks. By identifying these unmonitored assets, ThreatNG ensures they are included in the forensic package, preventing the "smoking gun" from being overlooked because it was not in the official asset registry.
External Assessment for Evidence Preservation
Once identified, evidence must be characterized and preserved. ThreatNG’s Assessment Engine captures the entity's state across multiple dimensions, effectively "freezing" its external posture at the time of analysis.
Preserving Technical State: ThreatNG captures the technical configuration of assets, including SSL certificate details, server headers, and open ports. This serves as a forensic snapshot of the infrastructure's vulnerability status at the time of the incident.
Example: An investigator uses ThreatNG to assess a compromised web server. The system logs indicate that Port 22 (SSH) was open and that the server was running an outdated version of Nginx. This data is preserved in the assessment, serving as proof of the security posture at the time of the breach.
Capturing Contextual Evidence: The assessment engine gathers Legal, Financial, and Reputation data to provide motive and context.
Example: In a supply chain investigation, ThreatNG captures a snapshot of a vendor’s financial distress and pending litigation. This "packaged" intelligence supports the forensic theory that the vendor may have cut security budgets, leading to the breach.
Investigation Modules for Safe Evidence Handling
A core tenet of forensic packaging is preventing contamination and ensuring investigators' safety. ThreatNG’s Investigation Modules enable the safe handling of hazardous digital materials.
Sanitized Dark Web Investigation: Investigating dark web leaks usually carries a risk of malware infection. ThreatNG provides a navigable, sanitized copy of dark websites. This feature removes malicious scripts and obscures illicit imagery while preserving the page's text and structure.
Example: An analyst finds a ransomware blog claiming to have stolen company data. Instead of visiting the dangerous Tor site directly, the analyst uses ThreatNG to view a sanitized, safe version. They can capture screenshots of the file listings as evidence without exposing their workstation to the live malware-hosting environment. This adheres to the forensic principle of "Zero Contamination."
Guided Recursive Pivoting: Users can extract specific attributes (e.g., an email address or an image) from the assessment and recursively retrieve additional connections. This creates a "Chain of Evidence" that links a malicious actor to specific infrastructure.
Example: Starting with a phishing domain, the investigator uses ThreatNG to pivot to the registrant’s email, and then to other domains registered by that email. This entire linkage is documented within the platform, creating a consolidated package of the attacker’s infrastructure.
Intelligence Repositories for Corroboration
ThreatNG’s Intelligence Repositories act as the reference library that corroborates the collected evidence.
Historical Data Access: Digital evidence is often transient; a phishing site may be up for only an hour. ThreatNG’s repositories and archival access allow investigators to retrieve data on assets that may no longer be live. This "Time Machine" capability is essential for packaging evidence of past attacks.
Knowledge Base Correlation: The platform correlates technical findings with broader threat intelligence. This ensures that the evidence package includes not just the raw data (e.g., "CVE-2023-XYZ") but the interpreted meaning (e.g., "Known exploit used by Ransomware Group A"), making the evidence decision-ready for legal or executive review.
Continuous Monitoring for Timeline Reconstruction
Forensics requires establishing a timeline of events. ThreatNG’s Continuous Monitoring provides the longitudinal data needed to reconstruct the incident.
Change Detection: The system monitors assets for changes in their risk profile. By reviewing the monitoring logs, investigators can pinpoint the exact moment a specific port was opened, or a reputation score dropped. This enables precise determination of the "Time of Death" for a security control, a critical component of the forensic timeline.
Reporting as the Digital Chain of Custody
The final stage of packaging is documentation. ThreatNG’s Reporting module aggregates all findings into a unified, immutable document.
Consolidated Evidence Report: The platform generates a report that includes the discovered assets, their technical assessment, dark web findings, and reputation scores. This report serves as the "sealed evidence bag," providing a comprehensive, timestamped record of the investigation that can be shared with legal counsel or law enforcement.
Configurable Scope: Investigators can configure the report to include only the relevant categories (e.g., Technical and Dark Web), ensuring the evidence package is focused on the specific case at hand.
Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG acts as the external evidence gatherer that feeds into the broader forensic ecosystem.
Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) Platforms ThreatNG provides external context to internal forensics.
Cooperation: DFIR platforms primarily analyze internal hard drives and memory dumps. ThreatNG complements this by providing the external view. When a DFIR tool finds a suspicious connection to an external IP, ThreatNG provides the "Dossier" on that IP (Who owns it? Is it on the dark web?). This combines the internal and external evidence into a complete forensic package.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) ThreatNG logs external evidence for long-term retention.
Cooperation: SIEMs serve as digital evidence lockers. ThreatNG feeds standardized reports of external risks (like exposed buckets or dark web mentions) into the SIEM. This ensures that the SIEM maintains a log not only of internal traffic but also of the external threat landscape at any given time, preserving evidence for future retrospective analysis.
Legal and Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) ThreatNG supports the legal chain of custody.
Cooperation: Legal teams require evidence of due diligence and third-party risk management. ThreatNG pushes vendor risk assessment reports directly to GRC platforms. In the event of a lawsuit, these timestamped reports serve as packaged evidence that the organization was actively monitoring its supply chain and acting on risk intelligence.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does ThreatNG ensure the safety of dark web evidence? ThreatNG uses a proprietary mechanism to retrieve dark web content and convert it into a "sanitized copy." This process strips out active executable code and obscures potentially illegal or harmful imagery using reference comparison, allowing the investigator to view the content as a static, safe document.
Can ThreatNG help prove when a breach started? Yes, through Continuous Monitoring. by reviewing the historical monitoring data, an investigator can identify the specific date and time that an asset’s status changed (e.g., when a "Safe" server first showed a "Critical" vulnerability), helping to establish the start of the incident window.
Does ThreatNG replace physical forensics? No. ThreatNG focuses on external digital forensics—the data found on the open, deep, and dark web. It does not analyze physical hardware like laptops or USB drives. It is a complementary tool that handles the "outside the firewall" portion of the investigation.
