This post originally appeared on Inside HMCTS.
In my last blog I explained about the work my team are doing to help shape our digital architecture to enable us to work better and smarter.
As part of our court reform plans to simplify our processes, I recently hosted a meeting on the use of Digital Ledger Technologies in securing digital evidence. This was the first in a series of digital thought leadership and innovation meetings that we will hold at HMCTS.
The meeting was hosted in conjunction with the Open Innovation team at Cabinet Office and we were extremely privileged to have Dr. Sadek Ferdous, Technology Policy Fellow and Research Associate at Imperial College in attendance. Dr Ferdous provided an overview of his latest research.
Digital Ledger Technologies, such as blockchain are perhaps best known for their use in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. As an architectural style, distributed ledgers enable new innovative data solutions that support both high degrees of integrity and de-centralisation. At HMCTS, we are passionate about the application of novel solutions to traditional challenges including evidence sharing, identity management and ensuring citizens have maximum control over their own information. Our service designs are focused on value, simplicity and use of the best modern technology approaches. This brings numerous benefits including cost effective and timely delivery and future proof solutions.
Dr. Ferdous began by providing attendees with a technical overview of Digital Ledger Technology, its evolution and progress. In the context of his research, this includes assessing the advantages and disadvantages of private and public Digital Ledger Technology systems, their relative security, scalability and cost profiles. For the technically minded, Dr. Ferdous provided a fascinating overview of both Hyperledger Fabric and Hyperledger Sawtooth Digital Ledger Technologies implementations and summarised key research challenges and innovations in both private and public sectors.
In addressing key challenges in managing digital evidence and preserving digital chain of custody, Dr. Ferdous showcased a digital evidence audit trail proof of concept. The audit trail is an essential component in any digital evidence system providing a “chronological record of system activities which capture how digital evidence has been created/accessed/modified by which entity, from what location, in such a way to enable the reconstruction and examination of the sequence of events, and actions leading to the current state of the digital evidence.” This is clearly a critical capability in the protection of digital evidence and in provision of guarantee of the integrity of evidence chains.
The suitability of Digital Ledger Technology to a range of business challenges and use cases was then discussed, drawing on lessons from other government projects in the UK and Europe. Estonia is an early adopter and has developed innovative citizen identity management solutions using blockchain. In the UK, researchers at the University of Surrey are working with the National Archives on Digital Ledger Technology solutions to secure digital archives. We are following this work with interest and plans to trial Digital Ledger Technology solutions for inter-agency evidence sharing later in 2018.
We are very excited to work with the Open Innovation team at the Cabinet Office, and to host thought leadership events on emerging technologies with our colleagues within the government digital communities. We are particularly grateful to Dr. Ferdous for dedicating the time to share his research and insight into the applicability of Digital Ledger Technology, to evidence sharing challenges in the public sector.
What’s next?
We are passionate about driving innovative digital change and are planning future discussions on Artificial Intelligence, data science and criminology research, cloud security and next generation design.
If you require further information or would like to attend a future discussion meeting please do not hesitate to contact me by email.