Journal of Forensic Research

Study on the Evidence Collection of Public-related Cybercrime in China

Abstract

Zhanfeng Hu*

Public-related cybercrime is a new type of crime that relies on science and technology, and has the characteristics of public-interested, cross-regional, and virtuality compared with traditional crimes. Punishment by the law is inseparable from evidence, and public-related cybercrime mainly occurs in the virtual space, which makes it significantly more challenging to investigate and collect evidence. Gathering evidence for public-related cybercrime, many problems have emerged, mainly including the lack of professionalism of the forensic subject, the non-standard forensic procedures, and the impact on the evidentiary ability and probative power of digital evidence. At present, these problems have seriously hindered the comprehensive, objective, and timely collection of evidence by the judicial authorities to crack down on public-related cybercrime. The primary evidence for determining the public-related cybercrime is digital evidence, so the discussion of the evidence collection and issues of the public-related cybercrime revolves around digital evidence. In response to problems in the process of evidence collection for public-related cybercrime, it shall be based on the characteristics of the cybercrime itself, the evidence collection system, and combined with the characteristics of digital evidence, such as the volatility, virtuality, and easy and accurate reproducibility of digital evidence, to find targeted and effective countermeasures. The targeted measures mainly include that increasing the professionalism of the forensic subject, promoting the censorship of forensic procedures, clarifying the legal principles of collecting evidence in cybercrimes, improving the mechanisms for the assessment and preservation of evidence and improving the application of relevant rules on primary evidence.