Digital forensic investigation challenges based on cloud computing characteristics

One of the most popular computing technologies is cloud computing. There are many benefits in adopting cloud computing such as high-performance, flexibility and availability ondemand, more focused on the business objective and low-cost. However, the characteristics of the cloud computing environment have created many difficulties and challenges for digital forensic investigation processes. Therefore, this paper focuses on the digital forensic investigation challenges based on cloud computing characteristics

Calm before the storm: the challenges of cloud computing in digital forensics

Cloud computing is a rapidly evolving information technology (IT) phenomenon. Rather than procure, deploy and manage a physical IT infrastructure to host their software applications, organizations are increasingly deploying their infrastructure into remote, virtualized environments, often hosted and managed by third parties. This development has significant implications for digital forensic investigators, equipment vendors, law enforcement, as well as corporate compliance and audit departments (among others). Much of digital forensic practice assumes careful control and management of IT assets (particularly data storage) during the conduct of an investigation. This paper summarises the key aspects of cloud computing and analyses how established digital forensic procedures will be invalidated in this new environment. Several new research challenges addressing this changing context are also identified and discussed

Dark clouds on the horizon:the challenge of cloud forensics

We introduce the challenges to digital forensics introduced by the advent and adoption of technologies, such as encryption, secure networking, secure processors and anonymous routing. All potentially render current approaches to digital forensic investigation unusable. We explain how the Cloud, due to its global distribution and multi-jurisdictional nature, exacerbates these challenges. The latest developments in the computing milieu threaten a complete “evidence blackout” with severe implications for the detection, investigation and prosecution of cybercrime. In this paper, we review the current landscape of cloud-based forensics investigations. We posit a number of potential solutions. Cloud forensic difficulties can only be addressed if we acknowledge its socio-technological nature, and design solutions that address both human and technological dimensions. No firm conclusion is drawn; rather the objective is to present a position paper, which will stimulate debate in the area and move the discipline of digital cloud forensics forward. Thus, the paper concludes with an invitation to further informed debate on this issue

Video Forensics in Cloud Computing: The Challenges & Recommendations

Forensic analysis of large video surveillance datasets requires computationally demanding processing and significant storage space. The current standalone and often dedicated computing infrastructure used for the purpose is rather limited due to practical limits of hardware scalability and the associated cost. Recently Cloud Computing has emerged as a viable solution to computing resource limitations, taking full advantage of virtualisation capabilities and distributed computing technologies. Consequently the opportunities provided by cloud computing service to support the requirements of forensic video surveillance systems have been recently studied in literature. However such studies have been limited to very simple video analytic tasks carried out within a cloud based architecture. The requirements of a larger scale video forensic system are significantly more and demand an in-depth study. Especially there is a need to balance the benefits of cloud computing with the potential risks of security and privacy breaches of the video data. Understanding different legal issues involved in deploying video surveillance in cloud computing will help making the proposed security architecture affective against potential threats and hence lawful. In this work we conduct a literature review to understand the current regulations and guidelines behind establishing a trustworthy, cloud based video surveillance system. In particular we discuss the requirements of a legally acceptable video forensic system, study the current security and privacy challenges of cloud based computing systems and make recommendations for the design of a cloud based video forensic system

Video forensics in cloud computing: the challenges & recommendations

Forensic analysis of large video surveillance datasets requires computationally demanding processing and significant storage space. The current standalone and often dedicated computing infrastructure used for the purpose is rather limited due to practical limits of hardware scalability and the associated cost. Recently Cloud Computing has emerged as a viable solution to computing resource limitations, taking full advantage of virtualisation capabilities and distributed computing technologies. Consequently the opportunities provided by cloud computing service to support the requirements of forensic video surveillance systems have been recently studied in literature. However such studies have been limited to very simple video analytic tasks carried out within a cloud based architecture. The requirements of a larger scale video forensic system are significantly more and demand an in-depth study. Especially there is a need to balance the benefits of cloud computing with the potential risks of security and privacy breaches of the video data. Understanding different legal issues involved in deploying video surveillance in cloud computing will help making the proposed security architecture affective against potential threats and hence lawful. In this work we conduct a literature review to understand the current regulations and guidelines behind establishing a trustworthy, cloud based video surveillance system. In particular we discuss the requirements of a legally acceptable video forensic system, study the current security and privacy challenges of cloud based computing systems and make recommendations for the design of a cloud based video forensic system

A survey about impacts of cloud computing on digital forensics

Nowadays, digital storage of computer data is moving toward cloud computing which is a set of infrastructure provides data storage for organizations and individuals. Due to this large scale, in case an attack occurs in the network of a cloud it would be a big challenge to investigate the cloud. Therefore, digital forensics in cloud computing is a new discipline related to the increasing use of computers, networks and digital storage devices in numerous criminal activities in both traditional and Hi-Tech. This study reviews the literature on some challenges in cloud computing forensic investigation, and it is followed by evaluation and analysis of all types of information on cloud computing and its impacts on computer forensic investigations in publishing alliances with the survey was carried out in the field

Understanding Issues in Cloud Forensics: Two Hypothetical Case Studies

The inevitable vulnerabilities and criminal targeting of cloud environments demand an understanding of how digital forensic investigations of the cloud can be accomplished. We present two hypothetical case studies of cloud crimes; child pornography being hosted in the cloud, and a compromised cloudbased website. Our cases highlight shortcomings of current forensic practices and laws. We describe significant challenges with cloud forensics, including forensic acquisition, evidence preservation and chain of custody, and open problems for continued research. Keywords: Cloud computing, cloud forensics, digital forensics, case studie

Google Drive forensic analysis via application programming interface.

Rapid development of cloud computing brings challenges to digital forensic investigation, where traditional digital forensic tools and methodologies do not apply well. New approaches are needed to overcome emerged problems. This research focuses on analyzing a popular cloud storage service Google Drive in a forensically sound manner. The application programming interface (API) approach is chosen as the main method to perform digital forensic investigation. A sample application is developed to acquire evidence from Google Drive. Experiments were then conducted to evaluate its effect based on results. By comparing the results with other approaches, the API approach proves to be effective and reliable for digital forensic examiners and forensic software developers to consider as available tool in their arsenal