Building Foundations for Digital Records Forensics: A Comparative Study of the Concept of Reproduction in Digital Records Management and Digital Forensics

Abstract

A b s t r a c tThe Digital Records Forensics project is a research collaboration among the fields of digital records management, law, and police investigation. It seeks to develop concepts and methods for determining the authenticity of digital records when they no longer exist in their originating environment. The project began with comparative studies of scholarly literature in each field to lay a conceptual foundation on which other research methodologies, such as analysis of case law, case study, and ethnography, can be designed and executed. The project expects that this conceptual foundation, along with findings from the other methodologies, will facilitate the proposal of a new discipline called digital records forensics, which will be beneficial to all relevant professions, with complementary strengths deriving from each participating field. This article reports on one of the comparative studies, which examined the concept of reproduction in the fields of digital records management and digital forensics. It presents findings of this examination as well as implications for both fields, with special emphasis on digital records management.

Record DNA: reconceptualising digital records as the future evidence base

“…However, the concept of fixity and uniqueness remains conflicted in the digital world where systems automatically generate multiple instantiations or copies of documents across networks (e.g. emails held by both sender and recipient), giving rise to questions about whether there can be such a thing as an 'original' record (see for example , Duranti 1989a andDuranti and MacNeil 1996;Latham 2016;Levy 2000;Lomas 2013;Ostrzenski 2015;Xie 2011;Yeo 2010) and, if so, which is the original (Duranti 1989a, pp 19-20); whether instead we need to speak of the "native format" of digital records, since "the original proper only exists for a nanosecond, if it is ever generated" (Ostrzenski 2015, p 386); and if we "need to replace the binary differentiation of original and copy with a more nuanced understanding of originality" (Yeo 2010, p 106). Not only is the concept of originality, as defined in diplomatic theory, being challenged by the digital but also the concept of preserving digital records.…”

Electronic records management – a state of the art review

“…-Archival theory: Cook (2011), Cunningham (2008, Niu (2012), Upward et al (2013), Xie (2011), Yeo (2008) -Business process: Brocke (2011), Cunningham (2011), Evans et al (2014 -Record classification: Asma-Mokhtar and Yusof (2015), Henttonen and Kettunen (2011) -Retention schedule: Arias ( 2008), Lu et al (2013), Man (2010) Challenges -People and Information Culture: Lian (2015), McLeod and Childs (2013), Sundqvist and Svärd (2016) -Long-term preservation: Fritzke (2008), Gladney (2009), Lemieux (2016), Svärd (2013), Yakel et al (2011) -Social media: Xie (2016)…”

“…Two articles on our list covered theories related to digital archiving (Cunningham, 2008 andXie, 2011). Cunningham (2008) argued that Digital Archives is fundamentally different than Digital Curation, with the later more relevant to libraries and museums.…”

“…The foundations for a new field of study called Digital Records Forensics was proposed by Xie (2011). The paper employed a comparative study method and discovered that while the Digital Records Management community was strong in the understanding of the theories and concepts of records management, the practice lacked the technical savvy persona of Digital Forensics.…”

Autenticidade de documentos arquivísticos digitais: análise de um processo de afastamento

“…A reprodução de documentos digitais tornou-se o único meio que os usuários humanos podem confiar para acessá-los novamente após a primeira vez que são salvos, independentemente de quanto tempo eles vão existir. Assim, a preservação da capacidade de reproduzir, tornou-se a pedra angular da preservação digital (XIE, 2011). Neste cenário, a presunção de autenticidade dos documentos arquivísticos digitais deve se apoiar na evidência de que eles foram mantidos com uso de tecnologias e procedimentos administrativos que garantam a sua identidade e integridade; ou que, pelo menos, minimizem os riscos de modificações dos documentos a partir do momento em que foram salvos pela primeira vez e em todos os acessos subsequentes (CONARQ, 2012).…”