SECAI Core · phase 4 of 15
Chain of custody
Record of handling evidence from collection to presentation in court to disposal.
The Explain card
- Plain English
- Chain of custody is the documented record of who handled evidence, when and how, from collection through presentation in court to final disposal.
- Example
- After an AI system is suspected of being poisoned, investigators image the training data store and model checkpoints, hash them, and log every handoff so the findings hold up later.
- Why it matters
- AI incidents produce evidence too: datasets, weights, prompts, logs. Without an unbroken chain, you cannot prove what the model was when it misbehaved or who touched it.
- Hook
- Every handoff signed, or the evidence is just a story.
Where it sits in the deck
Phase 4: Data Integrity, Governance, and Provenance
Once you know what data is, learn the principles that keep it trustworthy, traceable, and minimized throughout its lifecycle.
