TRATAMENTO DA PROVA DIGITAL E A GARANTIA DA AUTENTICIDADE À LUZ DO DIREITO E DA TECNOLOGIA

Abstract

The present study aimed to analyze the challenges and dilemmas faced with technological evolution and the virtual environments daily use, which have changed the form of relationships between people, work, as well as the procedural field. In this period of insecurity and transformations, it is important to reflect on the importance of complying with the essential steps that must be taken in the collection of digital records as a means of ensuring the authenticity of electronic documents. Some of the paths taken were to explain what legal facts and evidence are and how an electronic document can be a means of digital evidence, as well as to identify the main characteristics and care with digital evidence, presenting the essential steps in the digital chain of custody that must be performed in the collection of digital records, providing security to the evidence produced and settling controversies; and get to know a detailed metadata collection tool of digital facts that can guarantee integrity, reliability and auditability of digital evidence and its credibility for acceptance in the court. For this purpose, bibliographic and documentary research was used as a method for data collection, through the study raised in the theoretical framework on how to guarantee the probative authenticity of the electronic document, through the fulfillment of the essential steps that must be performed in the collection of digital records. Henceforth, from the data analysis, it was possible to perceive the relevance of adapting the law to society's innovations, and the evidence production in electronic environment, given that these directly impact judicial actions and decisions. The execution of the collection of digital records is imposed as a means of guaranteeing the probative authenticity of digital evidence. The lack of legal standardization regarding the chain of custody of digital evidence in order to cover any source of a real nature's evidence, presents itself as the biggest challenge for the acceptance of digital evidence in court, as digital evidence can be easily manipulated, making it difficult to solve crimes in digital environments, and generating legal uncertainty. In short, through the entire study carried out, it was possible to confirm that digital evidence is vulnerable to tampering, its authentication is based on technical-scientific methods, and compliance with the 03 (three) fundamental phases during the collection and conservation of digital evidence: Isolation, Detailed Technical Collection and Preservation, allow ensuring the authenticity of electronic documents, which allows for credible digital evidence and greater proximity to the real truth of the facts. Tools can be found on the market, such as VERIFACT, which is capable to enabling an enlightening verification of the fact that occurred in a digital environment, and, at the same time, protecting proof of fraud and manipulation, complying with the digital Chain of Custody and technically the trust guidelines for the collection and preservation of digital evidence records.