Moving one more step closer towards capacity building of its field staff, CBDT has developed and released a detailed manual on the use of Digital Evidence called “Digital Evidence Investigation Manual-2014”. In modern times, with the massive advancement in information technology, it has become a necessity for any business. Among other things, the challenges posed to Income Tax Department by the use of technology are:

(a)         Digital form of books of account

(b)         Network/Server based communication and operations

(c)         Vulnerability of digital records for modification, alteration or deletion

(d)         Encryption in digital data to protect them

(e)         Discovery and retrieval of data from of different storage devices that work on different technology (hard-disks, lap-tops, USB-drives, CD-DVD, Mobile SIM, etc.)

(f)          Multiple Software including customised ones

In the absence of any uniform instructions, the current methods used by the Income tax Department to access, collect and store these digital evidences are not forensically clean. Therefore the need for such a manual was imperative. The manual shall guide the field staff of the Income Tax Department not only in gathering but proper handling and utilization of all digital evidences during Survey, Search or seizures.

As per the Manual, it encompasses all the Investigation challenges related to retrieving, authenticating and proper storing of digital evidence. The manual has been developed after study and collection of data from various forensic tools of software and hardware used by the forensic laboratories in Mumbai and Delhi, It also provides for a detailed Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) for dealing with the forensic duplication and copying of digital evidence  it also guides on handling of data on Networks and Servers, ERP packages and accounting software used by companies. Case studies/scenarios have also been included to provide to illustrate various aspects to the field officers

The Manual has been divided into 21 Chapters as under:

1.          Introduction and Background

2.          The Digital Evidence

3.          Introduction to Digital Evidence Investigation and International Best Practices

4.          Important Related Terms

5.          Pre-Investigation Assessment of Digital Evidence

6.          Forensic Collection of Digital Evidence

7.          Analysis of Digital Evidence

8.          Documentation and Seizure of Digital Evidence

9.          Reporting of Analysis in Assessment Order and Archival of Digital Evidences

10.        Mobile Forensics

11.        Cyber Forensic Labs and Data Extraction Centres

12.        Case Scenario’s

13.        Backup with Few Softwares- Examples

14.        Imaging/Cloning- Few Examples

15.        On the Spot Recovery of deleted data-Examples

16.        Some Examples of Mobile Devices Backup

17.        List of few Hardwares/Softwares that can be used

18.        Details of Various Legal Provisions associated with Digital Evidence

19.        Digital Evidence Collection Form

20.        Chain of Custody Form; and

21.        Mobile Phone Evidence Collection Form

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