Cloud Computing and Forensic Accounting: Friends or Foes?

Abstract

Is Cloud computing another IT revolution or evolution? Whether cloud computing is classified as another revolution or evolution or not; this is no longer the question being asked by most people. Key issues which it still raises are questions about its implications for security and its readiness for forensic investigations. There is no doubt that cloud computing will offer some benefit such as increased flexibility, reduced costs and business agility etc. However, crime has a new frontier and cloud computing creates breeding grounds for digital evidence. Recent study has shown that security, privacy, jurisdiction and lack of control as being common of the stumbling blocks for companies adopting cloud computing. As Birk (2011) pointed out, most discussion so far is centred, mostly, around cloud security, data privacy and data protection. But to date, aspects of forensic investigation in cloud environment have been neglected by the research community. This paper explores challenges posed by cloud computing focusing on issues associated with the acquisition of evidence in virtualised environments. Since its advent, there has been a profound shift regarding the nature of digital evidence and throughout this paper we explore how cloud computing will impact the current tools, frameworks and procedures used or followed in forensic investigation.