CYBERCRIME PREVENTION AND DIGITAL EVIDENCE: A LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR COMBATING EMERGING CYBER THREATS

Abstract

Digital technologies are rapidly changing criminal activity, creating new and greater challenges for criminal justice systems, lawyers, and the police. This study investigates cybercrime prevention and digital evidence from a legal and criminal justice perspective, covering new cybercrime threats, legal tools, investigative powers, digital evidence, and institutional coordination. Financial cybercrime, ransomware, ID theft, cyber-enabled violence, online exploitation, and critical infrastructure attacks are significant threats identified in the analysis. It also explores the increasing role of digital evidence in the identification of offenders and the determination of criminal liability, such as electronic communications, data of mobile devices, cloud files, transactions, metadata, and network information. Specific attention will be paid to issues encountered with evidence preservation, evidence encryption, storage in the cloud, cross-border access to evidence, authentication, and chain of custody. The study also presents shortcomings of existing national cybercrime legislation, jurisdictional restrictions, lack of specialized staff, lack of forensic support, and fragmentation of the coordination of cybercrime response between law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, technology providers, and international partners. The results have revealed that it is not enough to criminalize infringement on the internet; a more comprehensive approach is needed to be employed when fighting cybercrime effectively. It will involve the use of integrated legal procedures, special investigative skills, consistent digital-forensic practices, timely international cooperation, public-private information-sharing, and ongoing judicial and prosecutorial training. The study also highlights the need to maintain privacy, due process, proportionality, and fundamental rights in the context of the expansion of investigative powers. By bolstering these interdependent elements, the detection, investigation, prosecution, and prevention of cybercrime can be enhanced, and criminal justice institutions can be better equipped to deal with the ever-changing nature of digital threats.