Digital logs - proof matters

Digital logs from computers are to technical administrators what fingerprints are to traditional crime scene investigators or what financial ledgers are to auditors. All these objects are timemachines containing answers to questions related to IT processes, unlawful acts and economic transactions. Inherent in each is the ability to reconstruct the who, what, when, where, why and how of an IT, legal or financial transaction. As society continually evolves toward a digital existence, however, computer logs are the fabric underlying transactions that once occurred exclusively in the physical realm. As a result, logs are registering on the radar screens of business, technical and legal professionals proportionate to thedegree towhich theirwork involves computers. This is to say, as crimes, disputes and social wrongs increasingly involve or target the use of computers, and as business relies on information systems to function, digital logs are the eyewitnesses. Realizing that human eyewitnesses are only as valuable as their perception, memory and cognition, so too are digital logs in their ability to paint a picture of a digital event(s). Similarly, just as persons cannot predict or prepare for eyewitness events, it is difficult to foreknow which digital transactions will necessitate recreation in resolving a dispute. However, we can engineer reliable perception, memory and cognition into our digital