Please mind the gap: A taxonomy for addressing the issue of linking person, account and device

Courts throughout several jurisdictions have dismissed cases on the basis that the link between a device or account and the accused person had not sufficiently been established. This core challenge of digital forensic science is named here the "Person-Device Gap" or the "Person-Account Gap" respectively. The gap illustrates the challenge of linking a person to a specific account or device, either in general or at the moment of interest. This article aims to explain this problem through modelling relevant identities and explains traces that have the potential to bridge the gap.