Proposing An Open Standard For Reporting Digital Audio Evidence Analysed By Open Source Tools

ABSTRACT

The increase of technology in business processes, Tanzania has lead to a class of crimes known as cybercrimes. Towards the mitigation of the occurrence of the crime, Tanzania enacted the cyber law which helps in ensuring all necessary security measures maintained. However, with the growth of science and technology in the investigation process, the high court of Tanzania with the help of forensic professionals is in practice digital legislation whereby the analyzed digital evidence data results are being brought in court for evidence. The process of analyzing digital evidence employs different tools and the reporting process is experienced to be of different formats. This study proposes a common format to be used for reporting the digital audio evidence data in the courtroom by the use of open-source tools. The researcher used a mixed approach to achieving the objectives of the study. Literature review and structured questionnaires were used so as to obtain a set of forensic open source tools to be used in the study and also to propose a format to be used as a standard for reporting the results. The Autopsy forensic browser for the sleuth kit was selected as an open-source tool for performing the tests for audio analysis. Through a computer experiment, a review of different reports was produced. Based on the results from the analysis of the audio data, it was observed that a single audio input could produce a report in multiple forms including the excel format, HTML format and text file format. The proposed included the chain of custody features which are Examiners name, file type, date, altered; file size, hash value, full path, and tool type. The study concluded by proposing a format that was presented in an XML schemer which contained all the defined details for the chain of custody. Various challenges were reviled in the study and the researcher recommended a number of areas for improvement that would press forward the judicial practices.