Cloud computing hinders foreign data collection: AFP

The AFP has admitted technological advancements present a challenge in obtaining data from foreign jurisdictions

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has identified rapidly developing technology as a key source of frustration, with the advent of Cloud computing making it more difficult to obtain data from foreign jurisdictions.

Appearing at a joint parliamentary select committee on cyber safety, AFP manager of investigations at the High Tech Crime Operations unit, Grant Edwards, said police were in a constant struggle to keep pace with the use of "high technology" in crime.

In particular, the intricacies of Cloud-based computing and the storing of data in foreign jurisdictions made it difficult to obtain data for later analysis.

“That’s something the government along with the AFP are working very robustly on trying to address," he said. “It comes down to speed and access to gain that information in an expeditious matter or quarantine it in an expeditious matter and then use it in an evidentiary process… They’re the key elements in making our job easier.”

Brad Marden, a detective superintendent of the crime unit, also identified Cloud computing as a key source of struggle in speaking to attendees of the Australian Computer Society Discover IT 2011 conference in Canberra.

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Source: computerworld.com.au
By: Chloe Herrick