Table of contents
- Why it is essential today to certify digital files
- What it means to certify files from a forensic perspective
- What is NOT certifying files
- How to certify files: photos, videos, emails and other content
- How TrueScreen helps you certify files forensically
- Practical benefits in everyday work when you choose to certify files
- How to start certifying files with TrueScreen
- Conclusion: it’s not just about the file, but how you certified it
- FAQ on forensic certification of digital files
- Start certifying your files with TrueScreen
More and more often, the decisions that really matter – in court, in a company, in an internal investigation – are based on a digital file. A photo quickly taken with a smartphone, a site inspection video, a chat, an email, a web page saved “just in case”.
The problem is that today, with editing tools and especially with generative artificial intelligence, it has become extremely easy to modify or even create highly realistic digital content from scratch. As a result, it is just as easy to challenge those files: “the photo was retouched”, “the video was edited”, “the chat is incomplete”, “that email is not exactly what I sent”.
In this scenario, having a file is no longer enough: you need to be able to demonstrate how it was acquired, whether it has remained intact and when it was created or received. In other words, you need forensic certification.
This guide explains what it really means to certify files from a forensic and legal perspective, which content types you can certify, and how a platform like TrueScreen – which adopts a recognized forensic methodology aligned with international standards such as ISO/IEC 27037, and is designed to support legal value globally – can help you turn a simple file into serious, verifiable and hard-to-dispute digital evidence.
Why it is essential today to certify digital files
In recent years, almost every professional activity has generated a “digital layer” of evidence: photos of accidents, videos recorded in the field, chat messages, emails with important agreements, digital inspection reports. In a law firm, an insurance company, an HR office or an audit department, decisions increasingly rely on these elements.
At the same time, digital files have never been so fragile. An image can be retouched in a few seconds, a video can be edited on a phone, a chat can be exported partially, a web page can radically change from one day to the next. With generative AI, it is even possible to create photos and videos that look perfectly authentic or to modify existing content in almost invisible ways.
The result is that, when you go to court or deal with a counterparty, it is easy for someone to raise doubts. Is that photo really the original one? Is that video complete? Has that email been altered? Without a structured certification methodology, these questions are hard to answer convincingly.
Forensic certification exists precisely for this reason: to move from a “random file” to a file you can defend because it has been collected and documented according to recognized technical criteria.
What it means to certify files from a forensic perspective
When we talk about certifying files in a forensic way, we are not describing a purely bureaucratic action, but a process that covers four key dimensions: integrity, authenticity, trusted timestamp and evidential value.
Integrity means being able to state that the file you have today is the same as the one you originally acquired or certified. It has not been cropped, modified, recompressed or resaved ten times. Technically, this translates into cryptographic checks and verifiable traces.
Authenticity is about origin. It is not enough that the file has not been altered: you need to be able to explain where it comes from, which device was used to acquire it, in which context. In other words, you need to describe and document the story of that content, not just its final appearance.
Trusted timestamp associates the file with a specific moment in time. If a photo was taken “around March” and a video “maybe last year”, any discussion becomes vague. A certified timestamp, embedded in a forensic process, makes the argument much stronger.
Finally, evidential / legal value is the outcome of all this work. In many jurisdictions there is no single magic label that guarantees admissibility on its own, but what matters is the robustness of the methodology, adherence to recognized forensic standards and the available technical documentation.
TrueScreen, for example, follows a forensic methodology aligned with international standards for the acquisition and management of digital evidence, such as those referenced by ISO/IEC 27037, and is designed to provide certifications that can support the legal value of content in different jurisdictions.
What is NOT certifying files
In everyday practice, there is often confusion. Many actions performed in good faith do not amount to forensic certification.
Saving a file into a network folder or a cloud service does not automatically make it credible evidence: there is no trace of how it got there, who might have handled it, whether it has been overwritten.
The same goes for the do-it-yourself screenshot: useful to remember what was on screen at a certain point, but extremely easy to retouch or recreate.
Simply sending a file by email or chat does not turn it into solid evidence either. It is just a transmission channel: it does not describe how the content was acquired nor does it lock in its integrity.
Electronic signatures are crucial for documents that must be signed, but they do not replace forensic certification of photos, videos, chats, web pages or screen recordings. These are different layers of the problem.
Finally, there is certified email (PEC in some countries), which proves sending and receipt between certified mailboxes, but does not address the full landscape of other types of digital evidence.
For all these reasons, forensic certification must be understood as a structured method: not a single act, but a process of acquisition, analysis and documentation.
How to certify files: photos, videos, emails and other content
Let’s start with photos. In a claim, an audit or a technical inspection, images often determine the outcome of a case. If they were taken on the fly, saved in a gallery and shared over chat, they will be very easy to challenge. A photo certified with TrueScreen, on the other hand, is acquired in a controlled context, with clear metadata (time, device, possible location) and integrity checks. You are no longer just showing “a photo”, but a photo with a verifiable technical history.
With videos, things get even more delicate. A few seconds cut, an invisible edit, a change in speed can completely change the perception of what happened. In a context where it is possible to generate or alter videos using AI tools, having a certified capture – with guarantees on continuity, integrity checks and, when relevant, analysis to detect potential manipulations or AI-generated segments – becomes crucial.
Emails are at the heart of many professional relationships. A message sent via a certified email system or a regular email can certainly be presented as evidence, but disputes over text, attachments and timing are very common. When an email is certified through a forensic process, the entire package (body, technical headers, attachments, temporal metadata) is described and frozen in a report. This makes it much harder to rewrite the story afterwards.
The same logic applies to other content: documents (contracts, reports), chats (WhatsApp, Telegram, internal platforms), web pages, audio files, screen recordings. Anything that today can be created, copied, manipulated or generated by AI needs, if used as evidence, a method that makes it trustworthy in the eyes of the decision-maker.
How TrueScreen helps you certify files forensically
TrueScreen is designed to bring this method into the daily work of those who handle digital evidence, without turning everyone into a forensic expert.
On one side, there is real-time acquisition: the content is captured directly through the TrueScreen app or tools. This is the case, for example, of a technician carrying out an inspection and taking certified photos and videos, or an adjuster documenting a scene. This way, the entire capture phase is under control: timing, context, technical parameters.
On the other side, there is certification of pre-existing files, through library import. This is typical in a law firm that receives photos, videos or documents from a client, or in an HR function that has to handle emails and attachments produced over time. In this scenario, TrueScreen analyzes the available metadata, performs integrity checks and still produces a forensic report.
In both cases, the core remains the same: systematically collecting the essential information (metadata, technical parameters, context), freezing the file’s integrity and generating a clear report. This report is designed to be usable by anyone – judges, arbitrators, lawyers, court-appointed experts, party-appointed experts, fraud teams, auditors – without requiring deep technical skills.
From a methodological standpoint, TrueScreen aligns with international forensic standards for the acquisition and management of digital evidence, such as those referenced by ISO/IEC 27037, and with the regulatory framework on the validity of electronic evidence. The goal is to provide certifications that can have recognized legal value internationally, while acknowledging that real-world admissibility will always depend on the jurisdiction and the specific case.
Practical benefits in everyday work when you choose to certify files
Professionals who use TrueScreen regularly often describe a tangible change in how they work with digital evidence.
For a lawyer or a law firm, it means building case files where photos, videos, chats and emails are not just “attached”, but accompanied by forensic documentation that explains their origin and integrity. This reduces surprises in court and makes the dialogue with the other side more linear.
For an insurance company or a bank, it means having a consistent method to handle claims, complaints and suspected fraud. Damage photos, dynamic videos and supporting documents are always handled in the same way, with fewer disputes and faster case closure.
In HR and employee relations, certifying critical emails and documents helps protect both sides: the employer and the employee. Important communications are no longer left to memory or poorly readable printouts, but become part of a structured digital archive.
For audit, quality and inspection teams, the ability to certify in the field reports, photos, videos and technical notes makes it much easier to demonstrate what was actually seen, measured and checked. In the event of later disputes, you don’t start from scratch: you go back to certified evidence.
In all these situations, forensic certification is not a tech gimmick but a practical way to work better, reduce risk and protect your professional work.
How to start certifying files with TrueScreen
Integrating TrueScreen into your daily activity is a gradual step. Many start with a single type of content – often the most critical photos or videos – and then extend certification to other files as they experience its value.
The first step is to access the TrueScreen portal, create your account and decide where to begin: claims, disputes, audits, HR, complaint management, field inspections. From that point on, the platform guides you in selecting the content type, capturing or importing files and generating reports.
Over time, forensic certification can become a natural component of your processes: a required step in internal procedures, embedded in digital workflows and integrated with existing systems through APIs and SDKs. The result is a digital provenance layer that runs across the entire organization.
Conclusion: it’s not just about the file, but how you certified it
We live in an age where it is increasingly easy to create and manipulate digital information, also thanks to artificial intelligence. This makes files not only more powerful as evidence, but also more fragile from a trust perspective.
If you work in legal, insurance, banking, HR, audit or inspections, you know how much a single document, photo or video can influence the outcome of a dispute or investigation. The key question is no longer just “do we have the file?”, but “can we defend this file if it is challenged?”.
Forensic certification, and in particular a structured approach like TrueScreen’s, helps you answer that question credibly. It lets you say not only “this is the content we saw”, but also “here is how we collected it, how we protected it, and how you can independently verify it”.
“In a world where every piece of evidence is digital, the difference is not the file you have, but how you certified it.”
If you want to bring this method into your processes, you can access the TrueScreen portal and explore how to integrate it into your daily work:
https://portal.truescreen.io/signin/
FAQ on forensic certification of digital files
Is it necessary to certify a file for it to be used in court?
In many jurisdictions, a file can be submitted in court even without formal certification. However, without a forensic acquisition method, it is much easier for the other party to challenge its integrity, authenticity or date. The judge or competent body may also view the evidence less favorably if it appears fragile or poorly documented.
Forensic certification is not always an explicit legal requirement, but it can significantly increase the evidential strength of a file, supporting admissibility and reinforcing your ability to sustain its content in court, depending on the specific legal context.
How easy is it to certify a file?
With purpose-built tools like TrueScreen, forensic certification becomes a day-to-day activity. The acquisition or import process guides the user step by step; metadata collection, technical checks and report generation are automated; and there is no need to be a forensic expert, because the methodology is built into the tool.
For professionals who work every day with photos, videos, emails, documents or web pages, certifying a file can become a natural habit, accessible to anyone who needs to protect themselves and their organization.
Why certify a file?
The reasons are concrete and very practical. Certifying a file increases the evidential value of digital proof and reduces the risk that a key piece of evidence will be challenged or excluded. It helps prevent and counter fraud and manipulation, makes audit, inspection, complaint handling and litigation processes more efficient, and shows that the organization manages digital evidence with method and responsibility, in line with internal policies and compliance requirements.
In short, certifying a file means upgrading from a “weak” piece of evidence to a structured one.
What happens if I don’t certify a file?
Nothing prevents you from using uncertified files, but the path can be more complex. You may find it harder to prove what really happened, see your evidence challenged or downplayed, or have to invest time and resources in complex forensic work to reconstruct the file’s history after the fact.
In addition, the organization may be more exposed to fraud, litigation and reputational risk. By contrast, introducing a forensic certification method for files reduces these uncertainties and puts you in a stronger position when it is time to assert your case.
Start certifying your files with TrueScreen
Do you want to turn photos, videos, emails and documents into structured, defensible digital evidence? Start certifying files with TrueScreen today.
