Live Forensics and the Cloud

Exploring the effect of Cloud Computing on digital forensics - Part II

Cloud Computing offers a sense of "vastness" in terms of storage and remote processing. According to Simpson Garfinkil, a major challenge to any digital forensics investigator investigating data within the cloud; can be an inability to locate or identify data or code that is lost when single data structures are split into elements.

This in effect directly impacts forensic visibility.

Within this ecosystem a major concern can be access to and the preservation of data within an on-going digital forensic investigation. Of consideration as mentioned in Part 1 - is that in a live and dynamic system such as the cloud, it is virtually impossible to go back to an original state of data after obtaining a "snapshot" for investigation.

Also of importance will be jurisdictional and legal ramifications pertaining to the physical location of the cloud systems holding data under investigation.

This part of the article continues from the question, "How can an investigator identify and track such an issue?" It looks at identity within the cloud with regard to the issue of anonymous authentication and how it can impact a digital forensic investigation.

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Source: sys-con.com
By: Jon Shende