Taiwan’s Judicial Evidence Preservation Introduces Blockchain Technology
【Published by: ithome | Editor: Huang Yan Fen | Translator: Statecraft 】
Global originality! Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Justice of Taiwan is the first organization to introduce a new service of blockchain record for the forensic report. It is expected that the Hash Value of the electronic copy of the paper forensic report will be uploaded to the Ethereum node after being encrypted and signed by the hardware wallet, it will launch the service of cloud forensic data at the end of the year.
The development of blockchain technology has matured so far, but many people’s application of blockchain technology is more focused on the cryptocurrency of Bitcoin or Ethereum. Before that, Taiwan also had a bitcoin fraud case of up to NT$1.5 billion. However, blockchain technology has decentralized, The characteristics of decentralized nodes. It also makes many people think about whether there are other better, more grounded blockchain applications besides cryptocurrency applications.
It is indeed there! For example, the Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Justice of Taiwan launched the latest application of the world’s first judicial blockchain in late April, becoming a new case of blockchain.
Wu Fu Mei, Director of the Department of Safety and Security of the Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Justice, said that after a long period of research, the bureau officially launched a new service of “Forensic Reporting”, which will report the Hash Value of the electronic copy of the original paper identification. After encrypting the signature through the hardware wallet, upload it to the node of Ethereum.
Wu Fu Mei said: “The forensic report is the first step in the application of the blockchain record of the Investigation Bureau.” It is expected that the end of the year, the cloud forensic data will be officially launched, including the common Dropbox or Google Drive. Various digital exhibits and on-site search investigators can automate the digital data stored on the relevant network hard disk (ie, automatically download the exhibit data to the exclusive flash drive) in the first time. The purpose is to ensure that the digital files for identification are not subject to any tampering or changes,” she said.
The investigation bureau has been studying the blockchain for about 2 years, and hopes to reduce the fatigue of colleagues as expert witnesses.
Blockchain technology research is not a trivial matter. Wu Fu Mei said that the first forensic laboratory in Taiwan had been established as early as 2006, and in August 2017, the Bureau of Investigation had established “on-site search and knowledge virtual currency research.” “Project”, the purpose is to establish a cryptocurrency investigation method and on-site search and standard operation procedures, search and transfer, and other interface modes.
She pointed out that in the research of related principles, technical details and testing process, it was found that the blockchain has the characteristics of openness, non-tamperability, time stamping and traceability, which is in line with the integrity of judicial evidence preservation and is very suitable for blockchain technology. The characteristics are applied in the judicial field, and after the demand analysis, the investigation bureau invests resources to develop the system.
The decentralization spirit of blockchain is: all participants share, manage, and jointly supervise the data of each node, rather than just storing the data in a centralized way of a single law enforcement agency, so that they can assist The two sides of different positions to establish a mechanism of mutual trust in order to conform to the spirit of law enforcement and human rights protection in modern society.
Wu Fu Mei pointed out that more than 90% of the investigations at the site of the investigation were on the computer and mobile phones. The investigators on the spot must handle a large amount of digital information, which also made the demand for digital security of digital exhibits large. In addition, in order to comply with the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Law for evidence, the Bureau of Investigation must issue a written forensic report.
In court offensive and defensive, lawyers questioned the credibility of the evidence is a common means of offense and defense in court. In the past one or two years, because the proportion of digital exhibits has become higher and higher, lawyers have questioned the credibility of digital exhibits also increased, and the investigation bureau The colleagues in the Anjian laboratory must appear in court as expert witnesses to prove the credibility of the digital evidence.
Since the Investigation Bureau has already built the first digital forensic laboratory in Taiwan and has obtained the ISO 17025 laboratory verification, there is a set of rigorous procedures for the management of exhibits from environment, equipment, personnel to management systems; It is also the process of ensuring that the on-site investigators are responsible for the relevant exhibits, from the on-site search, custody, analysis to the final presentation of the evidence, in line with the standard operating procedures.
Wu Fu Mei said that it is the duty of the investigation bureau’s colleagues to appear as an expert witness in court. Every time they appear in court, Including driving back and forth, waiting for the court to sit at the scene, at least half a day to a day, and the main purpose of the court appearance is to answer the prosecution and the lawyer, indicating that the evidence of whether the evidence has been contaminated in the process of witness identification by the investigation bureau.
She also said that as the blockchain technology matures, it begins to think about how to combine blockchain and digital forensics, in addition to strengthening the collection of the front end of the evidence chain and the part of the back-end forensic report. It can reduce the frequency of colleagues running around to serve as expert witnesses.
Therefore, there is the idea of uploading the hash value of the relevant digital exhibits to the Ethereum public chain. In the future, whether it is a prosecutor, a judge or even a lawyer, it is necessary to verify whether the relevant exhibit information is provided from the investigation bureau. When the original evidence is provided, the hash value of the electronic file of the forensic report previously uploaded to Ethereum can be checked to check whether they are consistent with each other, and it can be confirmed that the relevant digital evidence is not contaminated and has not been tampered with.
The prosecution confirmed that the Bureau of Investigation used blockchain technology to enhance the credibility of the exhibits.Only NT$0.3 per record
Since the investigation bureau and the prosecutor are important partners in the case investigation, the introduction of the emerging blockchain technology, applied to the confirmation of the existing digital evidence ability, in addition to having to spend time with the prosecutors In addition to the further communication instructions, it is also necessary to obtain the support of the prosecution officers to slowly deepen and promote such blockchain applications.
Xiao Yu Hong, the procurator of the Taiwan Taipei District Prosecutors Office, said that the evidence chain of the investigation bureau is to store the hash of the forensic report electronic file made by the digital evidence in the blockchain that is not changed. This also helps to ensure the chain of evidence. He believes that at the time of trial if the defendant has a dispute over the identity of the evidence, he can obtain the hash value of the chain to compare the digital evidence. Once the Hash value is consistent, it means that digital evidence is the result of the day’s search.
Xiao Yu Hong does not deny that it is a common practice to question the credibility of the evidence in courts to attack and defense. The Investigation Bureau uses blockchain technology to make the identification report hash value on the public chain is a preventive practice. After all, the practice of the evidence chain of the Bureau of Investigation in the past is only written on paper and placed in a sealed bag. The blockchain can confess the truth. To gain the trust of the public.
After the introduction of blockchain technology, Wu Fu Mei believes that the relevant links of the original field survey, such as search and management will not reduce the relevant search procedures because of the introduction of new technologies. Instead, they must respond to the introduction of blockchain technology. In order to ensure the evidence capability of the exhibits, it is necessary to do more actions, whether it is Searching, managing, delivering, analyzing results, etc., the actions of each standard operating procedure are indispensable. Instead, because of the introduction of blockchain technology, more actions must be taken to ensure that the evidence capability is credible.
Wu Fu Mei said that because the application of digital evidence by the Bureau of Investigation is to upload the Hash Value rather than the contents of the evidence, it also avoids the possibility of invasion of privacy and can prevent the investigation from being made public. By co-owning, co-managing and co-supervising the data of each node to make the relevant evidence more credible, it can also avoid the sequelae of evidence failure if the single node data is falsified or lost.
In addition, Wu Fu Mei also pointed out that after the relevant exhibit materials were uploaded to the public chain, the credibility of the relevant content was not determined by the Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Justice, which also broke the previous centralization practice — all for evidence search, analysis and management The mode of operation is all determined by the single unit of the Bureau of Investigation. “After all, Ethereum has at least eight or nine thousand nodes. After the forensic report hash value is uploaded to the public chain, the other eight or nine thousand nodes help to confirm the credibility of the forensic report,” she said.
Because Ethereum has the function of smart contract, after the multi-party evaluation of the investigation bureau, the Ethereum blockchain was selected. Each time the chain needs to be deducted from Ethereum, and the current exchange rate of Ethereum is converted into NT, and each time the forensic report is uploaded. The hash value, the transaction fee to be paid is about 0.3 NT, and the cost is at most 150 NT in terms of the number of at least 500 digital forensic reports a year. Therefore, for the cost of the existing investigation bureau in all aspects, this is Enough to pay.
The initial paper forensic report and the electronic file hash value are in parallel with each other, and the cloud forensics is promoted and blockchain record at the end of the year.
In recent years, the Bureau of Investigation has attached great importance to the pulsation and safety of information development, recruiting scientific and technological talents such as information and electronics. Therefore, it can also be seen that the essence of the blockchain is the decentralized database and its special value. Wu Fu Mei believes that the study of blockchain characteristics and application in the judicial process, the challenge is not the blockchain technology itself, but the consensus of the judicial community on the application of new state technology.
Since blockchain technology is an emerging issue in the Taiwanese judicial community, the forensic report is the first example of Taiwan’s judicial community in the blockchain application. Wu Fumei said that in the future, the paper forensic report and the electronic file will be double-tracked in parallel. There won’t be much change.
But she also said that the new service for cloud forensics launched at the end of the year is expected to be at the scene, directly downloading the digital evidence stored by the parties in the cloud, and facilitating the use of the chain program to write the hash value of the digital evidence to the area. Blockchain to get the effect of “save evidence immediately”.
Wu Fu Mei further explained that the current investigation bureau’s practice for cloud forensics is: after recording download the cloud data (including Webmail, etc.) electronic files, in order to ensure that the evidence will not be contaminated, the relevant electronic files will be saved on the CD-ROM and then search. The certificate personnel is also necessary to record the video from the signature of the seal, to the list of the search, to the subsequent unpacking, etc.
However, the speed of the disc is slow, the capacity is limited, and the disc has a useful life. As the data is digitized, mobile, and clouded, the Bureau of Investigation also uses the hard disk and the anti-write box to record evidence, including the file name and size.
However, when all the digital evidence is stored in a variety of cloud storage space, how to do the content of the digital storage from the cloud storage space as evidence, the relevant content has not been arbitrarily falsified?
In this regard, Wu Fu Mei said that before the end of the year, the Bureau of Investigation will launch a flash drive optimized for common network storage space. After the on-site search personnel confirmed the evidence, they will be stored in the flash drive, and the flash drive has a winding. The program will automatically calculate the hash value of each stored file. The hash value field of the entire file will be automatically linked to the hash value field in the flash drive after the investigation bureau confirms the identity of the search personnel. Confirm the credibility of the digital exhibits.
Also, because the relevant digital exhibits are continuously accumulated after the official registration, in the future, once any dispute over the digital exhibits occurs in the court, the interested parties can directly read the hash value of the deposit on the public chain. By verifying that the relevant digital exhibits have not been tampered with, the integrity of the digital evidence can be ensured, and the public’s trust in the law enforcement agencies’ search and certification can be enhanced, and the cost of the judicial process can be greatly reduced.
Wu Fu Mei further explained that the current investigation bureau’s practice for cloud forensics is: after recording download the cloud data (including Webmail, etc.) electronic files, in order to ensure that the evidence will not be contaminated, the relevant electronic files will be saved on the CD-ROM and then search. The certificate personnel is also necessary to record the video from the signature of the seal, to the list of the search, to the subsequent unpacking, etc.
However, the speed of the disc is slow, the capacity is limited, and the disc has a useful life. As the data is digitized, mobile, and clouded, the Bureau of Investigation also uses the hard disk and the anti-write box to record evidence, including the file name and size.
However, when all the digital evidence is stored in a variety of cloud storage space, how to do the content of the digital storage from the cloud storage space as evidence, the relevant content has not been arbitrarily falsified?
In this regard, Wu Fu Mei said that before the end of the year, the Bureau of Investigation will launch a flash drive optimized for common network storage space. After the on-site search personnel confirmed the evidence, they will be stored in the flash drive, and the flash drive has a winding. The program will automatically calculate the hash value of each stored file. The hash value field of the entire file will be automatically linked to the hash value field in the flash drive after the investigation bureau confirms the identity of the search personnel. Confirm the credibility of the digital exhibits.
Also, because the relevant digital exhibits are continuously accumulated after the official registration, in the future, once any dispute over the digital exhibits occurs in the court, the interested parties can directly read the hash value of the deposit on the public chain. By verifying that the relevant digital exhibits have not been tampered with, the integrity of the digital evidence can be ensured, and the public’s trust in the law enforcement agencies’ search and certification can be enhanced, and the cost of the judicial process can be greatly reduced.
In addition to the Information Security Forensic Laboratory of the Information Security Division to assist with the verification of relevant digital exhibits, the Bureau of Investigation also has other bureaus that need to launch a variety of forensic reports including biological and physical, as well as various professional licenses or Wills and so on.
Wu Fu Mei believes that the Information Security Division will put the electronic files of the paper forensic report on the chain, and even at the end of the year, it will be able to directly link the digital evidence directly at the search site, and these are all ways to inspire the future. Perhaps, in the future, perhaps In the Bureau of Investigation, you can attract more bureaus with forensic reporting needs, so that they can think about the feasibility of using blockchain technology, and ensure the credibility of relevant forensic reports by hashing the forensic report electronic files. Degree, etc., even when it is promoted to the on-site instant search, the relevant evidence will be immediately loaded. She believes that the development of blockchain technology has matured, and this is an important technological development trend. As long as the inspection unit does not reject such technology applications, there are still many aspects that can be applied and promoted in the future.
She also said that the Bureau of Investigation is also assisting the staff of the security department of Liudu, the security personnel of the entire investigation bureau, and the field personnel, through the use of more automated methods to implement the search, and the launch of the cloud forensics service at the end of the year. After that, it will be an update breakthrough in the judicial application of blockchain.
■ Source: ithome
■ Note: Please specify the source or references of the article for reproduced.
■ Solemn declaration: We reproduced articles and news for purpose of sharing information. Copyright belongs to the original author. If there is any infringement/error, please contact us as soon as possible, modify or delete action will be implemented immediately. Content analysis is for information purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice.
■ View Disclaimer: the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.
■ Please visit our site: Statecraft for more information and the latest news update.
■ Follow Us 👉 Instagram| Facebook | Telegram | Twitter | Youtube | Linkedin
■ Customer Service：contact@ktrade.email
■ Business Contact：jingluntech@gmail.com
