What is a primary objective when securing relevant media at a crime scene?

• A. To preserve evidence and establish chain of custody
• B. To delete metadata
• C. To power down devices
• D. To ignore the media

Answer: (A)

Preserving evidence integrity and maintaining a documented trail of custody is the primary goal when securing relevant media at a crime scene. By isolating devices, preventing access, and logging who handles what and when, investigators ensure the data remains exactly as it was found and that every action is verifiable in court. This preserves admissibility and supports a reliable reconstruction of events. Deleting metadata would destroy critical provenance and timing information, weakening the evidence. While handling may involve steps like capturing a forensic image with a write blocker, the aim remains to keep the original data unaltered. Ignoring the media would forfeit potentially crucial information.