An efficient approach to forensic investigation in cloud using VM snapshots

Abstract

Cloud computing has recently emerged as a technology to allow users to access infrastructure, storage, software and deployment environment based on a pay-for-what-they-use model. Traditional digital forensics cannot handle the dynamic and multi-tenant nature of the cloud environment as it has to address various technical, legal, and organizational challenges typical to the cloud systems. The dynamic nature of cloud computing allows abundant opportunities to enable digital investigations in the cloud environment. This paper addresses the challenges of digital forensics in the cloud environment and existing solutions to ease some of the challenges. We propose an efficient approach to forensic investigation in cloud using Virtual Machine (VM) snapshots.