Capillary electrophoresis is a laboratory technique used to separate charged molecules, including DNA fragments, inside a narrow capillary tube. An electric field pulls fragments through the capillary, and smaller pieces usually travel faster than larger ones. The result is a separation pattern that can be read by analytical software.
In forensic DNA workflows, capillary electrophoresis is important because it produces the raw file data that later tools use for genotyping and interpretation. If those output files are altered before analysis, the results may still look technically valid while the underlying evidence has been changed. That makes file integrity controls, access restrictions, and hash verification essential. In cyber security, the term matters because attacks against this step target trust in the data itself, not just the application that reads it.