by Richard Kanadjian, Encrypted Business Manager, Kingston Technology
Cybersecurity risks facing law enforcement departments are escalating. In 2025, crippling attacks against Kansas City and Wichita disrupted municipal operations and directly compromised over 77,000 police case files. In August, the Lodi, California Police Department fell victim to a ransomware attack that exfiltrated 197GB of sensitive data.
The risk to law enforcement agencies is not confined to ransomware attacks. In March of this year, Canada’s federal privacy watchdog detailed a case where the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) lost an unencrypted USB drive containing sensitive information on over 1,700 individuals, including witnesses and informants. Within weeks, that data was reportedly being offered for sale by criminals. The subsequent report recommended implementing strict controls on portable storage—precisely the gap that hardware-encrypted drives are designed to close.
As bad actors increasingly prove their ability to breach fortified networks and evidence repositories, the need for robust security measures to safeguard digital evidence throughout its entire lifecycle has become paramount. This starts with a practical, stage-by-stage strategy built around hardware-based encryption, read-only controls, and an auditable chain of custody.
The Lifecycle of Digital Evidence
The lifecycle of handling digital evidence is lengthy and complex. From its initial collection in the field to final presentation in court, digital evidence passes through multiple hands and environments. Every transfer point—whether from a body-worn camera, a mobile extraction tool, or a crime scene imaging device—presents an opportunity for loss, alteration, or unauthorized access if not properly secured.
Even a brief lapse in security can compromise an entire investigation or jeopardize the admissibility of critical evidence in court. For example, officers require secure methods to transfer large video files from patrol vehicles to central systems without risking a data breach. A single multi-hour bodycam recording can require between 1TB and 4TB of storage, which necessitates devices that not only have substantial memory but are also capable of meeting rigorous security standards.
To truly safeguard digital evidence at every stage, agencies need more than just compliant storage; they require hardware-encrypted solutions that prevent tampering, loss, or theft while preserving the chain of custody and providing verifiable access records. These requirements can be put into practice at each stage of the evidence-handling process:
Digital Evidence Collection
The initial collection of digital evidence is a critical phase that establishes the foundation for its integrity and admissibility in legal proceedings. To ensure that all evidence is forensically sound and that a complete chain of custody is maintained, the following procedures should be closely observed.
Integrity Verification with Digital Fingerprints: To prove the evidence remains unchanged, every file should be given a unique "digital fingerprint" when it is first collected. This fingerprint can be used as a baseline. Later, during analysis or in court, the file's fingerprint is checked again. If the new fingerprint matches the original exactly, it confirms that the evidence has not been altered or tampered with. This is the primary method used to detect even the slightest modification.
Secure Collection Environment: The security of all devices used for evidence collection—including laptops, mobile devices, and in-car systems—should be assessed and validated. To prevent inadvertent data modification, personnel are required to use hardware-enforced read-only modes when previewing or acquiring evidence.
Preservation of Original Media: To safeguard the integrity of the original evidence, all source media should be write-blocked and immediately archived. A designated forensic copy should be created for all subsequent analysis, leaving the original data untouched.
Digital Evidence Transfer
The transfer of digital evidence from a collection site to a storage facility or analytical lab is a potential point of vulnerability. Therefore, transfer protocols should be designed to be both highly secure and efficient, ensuring consistent use by officers and personnel.
Secure and Usable Protocols: Transfer methods should be designed for ease of use to ensure reliable adoption. The secure transfer path should be as fast and straightforward as current, less secure practices, supporting high-speed offloads for large files like video, and utilizing simple authentication methods such as strong passphrases.
In-transit Encryption and Confirmation: To ensure the integrity of digital evidence, all transfers should be encrypted in transit, with the system automatically generating a confirmation record detailing sender, recipient, and timestamps. Immediately upon receipt, the evidence's integrity should be verified by recomputing its cryptographic hash and confirming it matches the original hash value.
Digital Evidence Storage (Hardware-Enforced Evidentiary Integrity)
The long-term storage of digital evidence requires robust security measures to guarantee its integrity, control access, and ensure its availability for legal processes. The following hardware-enforced standards are essential for creating a secure and auditable evidentiary repository.
Hardware-based Encryption: When a hardware-encrypted drive is lost, the data remains inaccessible to bad actors, which protects victims, ongoing cases, and the agency itself. All data at rest should be protected with hardware-based encryption that utilizes strong algorithms from NIST, such as AES-256 in XTS mode, in a FIPS 197 or FIPS 140-3–validated implementation.
Access Control and Auditing: Access to stored data should be managed through role-based permissions that limit actions according to user responsibilities. The system should also maintain tamper-evident, auditable logs that record every access event and any changes made within the system.
Device Security Features: Storage devices should be configured with security features such as automatic lockout or secure data erasure after a specified number of repeated, failed login attempts. These features should be supported by logged administrator recovery procedures to prevent data loss while maintaining security.
Digital Evidence Analysis & Backup
The analysis of digital evidence should be conducted in a methodologically sound manner while preserving the original data in its pristine, unaltered state. A comprehensive backup and retention strategy is also critical for preventing data loss and ensuring compliance with agency policies.
Analysis on Forensic Copies: All analytical work, including tool-based processing and manual review, should be performed on a designated forensic copy of the evidence. This procedure ensures that the original evidence is kept isolated and remains unchanged throughout the investigation.
Data Backup and Retention: A formal data retention strategy, such as the 3-2-1 rule (three copies of data, on two different media types, with one copy off-site), should be followed. This includes maintaining encrypted backups of all working data sets and scheduling regular integrity checks by verifying file hashes, ensuring the strategy aligns with both agency policy and specific case requirements.
Making Digital Evidence Courtroom-Ready
For digital evidence to be effective and unassailable, it should be able to withstand legal scrutiny in the courtroom. This is achieved by using standards-based cryptography, such as AES-256 in FIPS-validated implementations, which provides a defensible foundation for the evidence's integrity. An agency should also be able to produce complete chain-of-custody logs, matching hash histories, and detailed access records. This documentation works together to demonstrate conclusively that the evidence presented is unchanged and has been handled according to procedurally sound methods from collection to courtroom.
As cyber threats continue to evolve and the volume of digital evidence grows, law enforcement agencies can neutralize risks by adopting robust, secure-storage strategies that protect data from end to end. A successful program should be anchored in lifecycle controls, including FIPS 197 or better FIPS 140-3–validated, hardware-encrypted storage; enforced read-only access for original files; encrypted transfers with sender, recipient, and timestamp capture; hashing upon intake and receipt; and a 3-2-1 encrypted backup strategy with scheduled integrity checks.
It is critical to make a high-security approach the default for all digital evidence operations. This can be accomplished through high-speed, officer-friendly workflows with user-friendly and secure encrypted drives delivering strong yet usable authentication with logged admin recovery options; role-based access controls; tamper-evident, auditable logs; and allowing for complete chain-of-custody and hash histories that will stand up to scrutiny in court.
About the author
Richard Kanadjian is the Business Manager of Kingston Technology’s Encrypted USB unit. He joined Kingston in 1994 and has served the company in a variety of roles for both the Flash and DRAM divisions. Prior to his current role, Kanadjian was part of the SSD product engineering department, helping develop and support Kingston’s enterprise SSDs at both the technical and customer levels.