The Guidance Manual for Handling Digital Forensic Evidence in Arab Countries

Amid the rapid evolution of information and communication technology and the widespread use of electronic devices, law enforcement agencies face a significant and accelerating challenge in dealing with digital forensics. These digital forensics, stored or transmitted through electronic devices, play a crucial role in various crimes, ranging from traditional offenses such as murder to cybercrimes like hacking. The challenge lies in obtaining digital forensics that are admissible in court to prove these crimes. Digital forensics may be one of the sources of proof for a crime or the sole source of evidence for certain offenses, such as hacking or deepfake audio manipulation. The handling of digital forensics becomes more complex due to its presence in both traditional and digital crime scenes - electronic devices serving as digital containers.

The issue of dealing with digital forensics from a legal, procedural, and technical perspective in both traditional and digital crime scenes is a global challenge. Therefore, international regulations and agreements, such as the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime (2001), the UNODC's Digital Forensics Best Practices, ISO guidelines, and the recently issued Saudi Evidence Law (2022), have been consulted. On the technical side, guidelines such as Interpol's First Responder Guide for Digital Forensics and ISO/IEC 27037 for identifying, collecting, acquiring, and preserving digital forensics have been referenced.

A guiding manual for Arab states has been developed to address digital forensics based on international best practices related to securing and collecting digital forensics at crime scenes. The manual is divided into two main parts: one addressing legal and procedural matters and the other focusing on technical and technological aspects. This manual provides guidance to specialists and practitioners on evidentiary, legal, and technical matters to obtain reliable digital forensics for court proceedings. It also includes illustrative models for device seizure and a suggested mechanism for coding or naming digital forensics.

This guiding manual aims to contribute to the integration of security and judicial entities, serving the interests of joint Arab action. It strives to provide an Arab model that caters to the current advancements in criminal investigation and enhances the efficiency of experts' work. By developing the manual's outputs into detailed guides and conducting training sessions for experts that contribute to raising the readiness of relevant authorities in handling digital forensics. In the future, there is potential to further develop this guiding manual to unify procedures among security and judicial agencies in Arab countries, ultimately facilitating the exchange of digital forensics between Arab countries.