41OPERATIONS

Forensics & Evidence Chain

Security evidence is part of the product, not an afterthought to logging.

Priority: P1
Phase: Phase 2
Primary owner: Security / Audit
Status: Blueprint

Objective

For high-stakes investigations, evidence needs integrity, chronology and traceability. The platform should maintain a tamper-evident chain that shows what was observed, what policy was active, who approved actions and what downstream system returned.

What to build

Immutable event IDs, trusted timestamps and cryptographic hashes for evidence bundles.
Policy/configuration snapshots referenced by decisions.
Links to source-system event IDs where available.
Investigator notes stored separately from original evidence.
Legal/audit export packages with manifest and integrity verification.

Implementation decisions

Use append-only or tamper-evident storage patterns for critical evidence.
Define retention/hold workflows by incident and regulation.
Avoid claiming legal chain-of-custody guarantees beyond implemented controls; document scope clearly.
Record administrative evidence access.

Definition of done

An exported case can be verified against its manifest.
Evidence required to reproduce a decision is retained for the configured period.
Administrative modification of original evidence is prevented or detectable.

Success metrics

Evidence integrity checks
Export verification success
Case retention compliance
Unauthorized evidence-access attempts

TRUST

Security evidence is part of the product, not an afterthought to logging.