Managing and Transforming Digital Forensics Metadata for Digital Collections

In this paper we present ongoing work conducted as part of the BitCurator project to develop extensible strategies for transforming and incorporating digital forensics metadata into archival metadata schemas. We focus on metadata produced by open-source tools that support Digital Forensics XML (DFXML). We describe how portions of this metadata can be used when recording PREMIS events to describe activities relevant to preservation and access. We examine open issues associated with these transformations and suggest scenarios in which capturing forensic metadata can support digital curation goals by establishing clear documentation of integrity and provenance, tracking events associated with pre-ingest and post-ingest forensic processing, and providing specific evidence of authenticity.