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CompTIA CAS-004: What Are the Requirements for Digital Evidence to Be Admissible in Court?

Learn about the key criteria that digital evidence must meet to be accepted in a court of law, including being material, relevant, and properly preserved and documented.

Table of Contents

Question

To bring digital evidence in a court of law, the evidence must be:

A. material.
B. tangible.
C. consistent.
D. conserved.

Answer

A. material.

Explanation

To bring digital evidence into a court of law, the most important requirement is that the evidence must be material. This means it must be relevant to the case and have a logical connection to the facts being disputed or the legal issues being decided.

While the evidence should ideally also be tangible (i.e. something that can be physically presented in court), consistent (i.e. not contradict itself or other established facts), and properly conserved (i.e. collected and preserved using forensically sound methods), these factors are secondary to materiality.

Digital evidence that is material to the case will generally be admitted, even if there are some questions about its tangibility, consistency or the collection/preservation process. On the other hand, evidence that is not material is unlikely to be admitted even if it excels in all other areas.

Therefore, the best answer to this question is A – to be brought into a court of law, digital evidence must be material. The other qualities listed, while beneficial, are not strict requirements in the same way that materiality is.

CompTIA CAS-004 certification exam practice question and answer (Q&A) dump with detail explanation and reference available free, helpful to pass the CompTIA CAS-004 exam and earn CompTIA CAS-004 certification.