The purpose of this paper is to assist the Office of the Prosecutor (“OTP”) at the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) by discussing cyberinvestigation protocols that enable strategic mobilization and acquisition of digital evidence. This paper discusses cyberinvestigation protocols relevant to three types of digital evidence: data that is on a device; data that is not on a device or is accessible online; and data that is held privately by a service provider. The first section addresses how an investigator should acquire and authenticate physical devices that may have evidentiary value....
This paper provides background on the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act (ASPA or Act) and examines the circumstances surrounding the passage of the Act, its key provisions and their exceptions, and how the Act affects investigations by the International Criminal Court (ICC or Court). International criminal prosecutions increasingly rely on cyberinvestigations to uncover digital evidence that can be subsequently admitted in court proceedings. ASPA restricts U.S. cooperation with the ICC and its investigations within the United States. As the majority of emails and social media...
As digital evidence becomes more prevalent, it poses challenges to the International Criminal Court. This paper reviews some of the leading international criminal cases involving digital evidence, with a particular focus on the ICC, and identifies four types of evidentiary considerations specific to digital evidence: (1) authentication; (2) hearsay; (3) provenance (chain of custody); and (4) preservation of evidence. Using these four considerations, this paper aims to contribute to discussion on how best to respond to the challenges of digital evidence. The paper concludes with several...
The Human Rights Center and Amnesty International hosted the first Digital Verification Corps student summit in June 2017. Participants included students from Essex, Toronto, Pretoria, Cambridge, and Berkeley as well as leading open source experts from around the world. We evaluated the first year of university-based open source labs, conducted training, discussed next steps, and built community.