This third report on the EU digital evidence situation is timely and highly relevant in a time of rapid digitalisation. Digitalisation has an impact on virtually all criminal activities and security threats we encounter in the EU. Similarly, law enforcement and judicial authorities must increasingly rely on digital solutions in enforcement and judicial processes.

Nothing has made it clearer than the COVID-19 pandemic that there is a pressing need to embrace and integrate digitalisation into our working processes and prepare our systems. Law enforcement authorities were able to adapt quickly to an unprecedented situation relying on some of the digital solutions already in place and provided by Europol and those that were deployed in response to the reality of a global pandemic. This experience has clearly demonstrated the powerful potential of digital processes and the ability of handling digital evidence securely and verifiably.