Blog: 20.11.24

Building a Strong Digital Trail: Best Practices for Evidence Preservation

Preserving Evidence for Lasting Impact (and how Falkor can help)

As an analyst, your work often revolves around uncovering hidden truths and piecing together complex puzzles. But what happens when a key piece of evidence—something you worked hard to find—goes missing or becomes unusable? This nightmare scenario highlights one of your most critical responsibilities: storing, archiving, and preserving data and evidence effectively.

While it might seem mundane compared to the thrill of solving cases, this foundational task can make or break an investigation. It’s not just about keeping things organized—it’s about ensuring your findings remain admissible, reliable, and actionable, whether in court, compliance reviews, or internal audits.

Why Evidence Preservation Matters

In law enforcement, the stakes are especially high. Evidence must be securely stored not only to hold up in court but also to comply with stringent legal and procedural standards. Mishandling evidence can undermine investigations, erode trust, and jeopardize justice itself.

In the private sector or other analytical roles, effective data governance and preservation are equally critical. A well-organized system ensures quick retrieval and seamless use of data when needed.

Key Principles for Evidence Preservation

1. Start with Organization

- The first step is simple yet transformative: organization. Structure your data methodically—by cases, folders, or using tools like Falkor's relational database.

- Organized data ensures you can find what you need, when you need it. Misplaced or poorly stored evidence is as good as nonexistent.

Falkor simplifies this process. Its relational database ties data points together, ensuring nothing is overlooked or lost in the noise. With a well-organized system, you maintain control over your investigative data, enabling smoother workflows and more impactful analysis.

2. Maintain the Chain of Custody

- Tracking who accessed a specific data point, when, and where is vital to preserving data integrity.

- A poorly documented or excessively long chain of custody increases the risk of evidence mishandling, which could render it inadmissible in court.

Falkor addresses this challenge with permissions-based access controls, ensuring data is accessible only to the right people at the right time. Its secure, encrypted database supports full case management, streamlining the chain of custody.

3. Secure Digital Evidence with Hashing

- Running files through a hash algorithm creates a unique digital fingerprint, ensuring any tampering is detectable.

- Always retain the original file alongside its hash to comply with best practices and ensure acceptance by courts or other stakeholders.

Falkor further enhances this process by providing tools to audit data effectively. Analysts can track the origins of every data point, see who added it, and verify timestamps—safeguarding the chain of custody and helping teams remain audit- and compliance-ready.

Falkor: Empowering Analysts to Build Trust

Falkor is your ally in preserving evidence and ensuring no detail is ever lost. By streamlining evidence preservation and management, Falkor empowers teams to focus on what truly matters: uncovering the truth.

With its secure, encrypted platform and robust case management capabilities, Falkor makes evidence preservation simple, reliable, and effective. Together, we can ensure every piece of evidence remains actionable, admissible, and impactful.

Request a Demo Now and see how Falkor can transform your evidence management process!