The primary purpose of a chain of custody is to maintain the integrity and authenticity of digital evidence from the moment it is collected until it is presented in a court of law. It provides a chronological and detailed record of every individual who handled the evidence, the duration of their custody, and the actions performed. This unbroken audit trail is crucial to demonstrate that the evidence has not been altered, substituted, or tampered with, thereby ensuring its admissibility and credibility during legal proceedings.

A. Maintaining a chain of custody is a meticulous documentation process that adds procedural overhead and does not accelerate the technical analysis of evidence.

C. Secure storage is a component of maintaining the chain of custody, but the overarching goal is to prove integrity by preventing tampering, not just to store it.

D. Data recovery is a technical forensic procedure performed during analysis, which is separate from the legal and procedural requirement of documenting the evidence's handling.

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2006). Guide to Integrating Forensic Techniques into Incident Response (Special Publication 800-86). Section 3.2.2, "Chain of Custody," states, "A complete chain of custody is necessary for evidence to be admissible in a court of law. The chain of custody proves the integrity of the evidence by documenting who handled the evidence and when."

2. Casey, E. (2011). Digital Evidence and Computer Crime: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet (3rd ed.). Academic Press. Chapter 4, "Evidence Collection and Data Seizure," discusses that the chain of custody is essential to "demonstrate that the evidence has not been altered or tampered with since the time of its collection" (p. 121).

3. George Mason University. (Courseware). CFRS 761: Digital Forensics Analysis. The course syllabus and materials emphasize that maintaining the chain of custody is a foundational principle to ensure evidence integrity and withstand legal scrutiny by preventing claims of tampering or contamination.