A Comprehensive Study of Cloud Forensics

Abstract

Cloud Computing has many facets to it which makes it diverse. Investigation of a cyber-crime that involves the cloud as a subject, object, or as an environment, is cloud forensics. Challenges in cloud forensics exist at every phase of digital forensics. To provide a holistic solution to overcome these challenges we must first understand the cloud forensics landscape (the Cloud). The elements which give the Cloud the diversity that it has, and have an impact on the forensics process of the cloud should be taken into consideration while designing the cloud forensics framework. In this paper, the researchers present a comprehensive survey of the research trend in cloud forensics. The paper also proposes a cloud forensics taxonomy based on the paradigms of cloud computing that have an impact on cloud forensics. Although forensics solution taxonomies have been proposed earlier, this paper aims at a taxonomy solution at a more generic level. The proposed taxonomy provides cloud forensics solution strategies for efficient cloud forensics.