Chain of Custody

In telecommunications, Chain of Custody is the documented trail proving who collected, handled, transferred, and analyzed a piece of evidence (signaling capture, log file, CDR extract, lawful interception product) and that it has not been altered. A defensible chain of custody is essential for fraud disputes, regulatory reporting, and lawful interception evidence.

Categories: Radio Access NetworkSignalingThreats and Attacks

Chain of Custody in context

The radio access network is where mobile devices attach to the operator's infrastructure. Attacks in this layer include IMSI catching, rogue base stations and downgrade attacks; defenses rest on mutual authentication, integrity-protected signaling and Open RAN supply-chain hygiene.

Signaling protocols carry the control-plane messages that set up calls, register subscribers and route SMS. SS7, Diameter, GTP-C and SIP are the four dominant families, and interconnect exposure of any of them is treated by GSMA as top-tier telecom risk.

To place Chain of Custody in the wider telecom-security picture, review Lawful Interception Abuse Risk, Lawful Interception Architecture, Revenue Assurance, Telecom Penetration Testing, O-RAN Interfaces (A1, E2, O1, O2) and Bidding-Down Attack — each entry cross-references back to this page so you can walk the topic in either direction.

Related terms

More from the TelcoSec Glossary

Browse the full TelcoSec Glossary, the Ultimate Guide to Mobile Network Security, or the P1 Arsenal of telecom-security tools.