Which of the following protocols would be MOST important in preserving digital evidence of criminal activity during an investigation?

Change control management governs modifications to IT systems and configurations, not the handling of evidence.

Chain of custody is the documented, unbroken trail of accountability for digital evidence, recording who collected it, who handled it, and how it was stored. Without this process, evidence can be challenged as tampered with or contaminated. It is a foundational requirement in forensic investigations to ensure evidence holds up in legal proceedings.

Channel escalation refers to routing a support issue to a higher tier, which has no relevance to evidence preservation.

MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) documents describe hazardous chemical properties and are unrelated to digital forensics.