Educational resources
Digital Evidence Glossary
Boston-based, serving clients nationwide by appointment.
Focused on preservation-first digital evidence handling terminology for legal and insurance-related matters.
Common terms (plain language)
- Chain of custody
- A record showing who had the evidence, when, and what was done to protect integrity.
- Forensic image (bit-for-bit)
- A capture of storage content designed to preserve data structure and context. Used when appropriate and authorized.
- Hash value
- A cryptographic fingerprint used to verify that a file or image has not changed.
- Preservation vs. analysis
- Preservation focuses on defensible capture and documentation. Analysis interprets content and may require separate retention.
- Litigation hold
- A directive to preserve relevant information when litigation is anticipated or ongoing.