UNDERSTANDING THE DIGITAL FORENSICS FRAMEWORK OF CLOUD COMPUTING-CLOUD FORENSICS

Abstract

As cloud services become a mainstream Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solution for business, consumers and governments, security and privacy issues assumes increasing significance. But on the other side of the coin, cloud services are used for criminal activities, or targeted by organized crime, then public Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) will want and need to obtain access to data held in cloud services for forensic purposes during the course of an investigation. Such forensic data may be held on systems controlled by a suspect, victim, or an innocent third party, often located in foreign jurisdictions or where the location is unknown. However, the potential for LEA can generate its own commercial security and privacy concerns for cloud users. Indeed there raises a number of technological, economic, legal, security and environmental questions. Further creating new challenges for managing cyber criminality, as cloud computing naturally becomes a new playing field for cybercriminals. Eventually, these groups and individuals see in the cloud opportunities for the automation of cybercrimes, optimized spreading of malware, or the hijacking of data and programmes belonging to cloud clients. Thus, standing at the point of multifarious concerns at hand, the cyber investigation in cloud computing is an area of greater concern, as technological need of man is unending. Functionality of Law Enforcement Agencies paves way for myriads of forensic challenges and the matter to be analysed.  The discovery and acquisition of evidence in remote, elastic, provider controlled cloud computing platforms differ from that in traditional digital forensics, and examines lack of appropriate tools for these tasks.