The Importance of Audits to Preserving Evidence Integrity
Crime shows on television make it seem like gathering evidence is a straightforward, albeit mysterious, process. It’s the turning point that builds momentum on speculations revolving around the suspect, which is why it’s the driving force behind analyzing crimes. Although instead of a messy crime scene, the reality is that preserving evidence integrity involves a hard drive and a monitor.
Of course, unraveling the link between the pieces of evidence requires audit trails to ensure the record’s authenticity, operational integrity, and proof of compliance. But what exactly does an audit trail look like beyond the scenes you know on police dramas?
What Is an Audit Trail, and Why Is It a Fundamental Phase in Computer Forensics?
Audit trail involves recording every action, event, activity, or user handling data. Since it focuses on vetting the legitimacy and accuracy of all related records, the volume of audit logs can jump from hundreds to thousands daily, depending on the scale of your organization.
The rising numbers make audit trailing difficult to track, but digital solutions like a PMI Evidence Tracker ™ can take the drudgery out of the process by ensuring the following:
- Regulatory Compliance – Recording evidence of every action and event that transpired must be logged in an information system as a standard industry practice. With an automated audit trail, you can ensure all logs are secure and tamper-evident;
- Prevent Internal Fraud – With an influx of systems and users accessing sensitive information, internal fraud becomes a higher risk. An automated evidence tracker should boost your system’s security by a significant margin;
- Prevent Data Breach – Cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated, so automating your audit trailing should minimize the looming threat of data breaches.
- Secure Information – Audit trailing allows you to track activities and discover any anomaly in your information security;
- Business Analysis – Since most, if not all, information undergoes a digital process in a system, audit trailing promotes data generation and collection that enables faultless business analysis.
Audit trail guarantees visibility when handling sensitive data, so automating the process should pave the way for a system that ensures proper operational security and activity. This leads to evidence integrity, which plays a pivotal role in ensuring the evidence can support legal cases and stand up against interrogation.
The Bottom Line: Taking the Guesswork Out of Audits Using an Automated Evidence Tracking System
Instead of dealing with throngs of paperwork, as you would see in an episode of CSI, audit trailing is typically connected directly to the agency’s software and IT infrastructure. By integrating an automated evidence management software to bolster your audit trailing, your firm can mitigate fraudulent activities, inconsistencies, and inefficiencies in your process for more risk-free operations.
Does Your Law Enforcement Agency Need a Better Evidence Management System?
Designed for cops by cops, our police evidence management software and law enforcement inventory software offer solutions that can streamline your processes and optimize your workflow. Get in touch with us today at (800) 325-7636 and see what we can do to remove the inefficiencies in your chain of custody.
