Downloads, Logs and Captures: Evidence from Cyberspace

The growing use of the Internet, online hosts, electronic banking and bulletin board systems means that with increasing frequency evidence needs to be collected from remote computers for use in legal proceedings. Issues of the evaluation of weight still need to be addressed even if strict rules of admissibility are removed. The background processes involved need to be understood if courts are to be able to test evidential quality. The controls that should be in place are discussed and a series of tests of provenance and reliability are suggested. Such tests, however, will never be more than decision aids.