| Due to the fact that cloud computing is becoming more widespread, its use in criminal activity will likely grow. With the increase, it's expected that clouds will contain more and more evidence of criminal activity. Therefore, information assurance and law enforcement professionals will need better forensic tools if they're going to extract evidence from cloud-based environments. The purpose of this research was to examine the challenges while performing digital forensics in a cloud environment. While exploring these challenges, the most common concerns were validated and potential solutions were identified. To ensure ongoing and future investigations are sufficiently and effectively conducted in an evolving, high tech, and multi-national environment, the following three areas must be addressed: evidence acquisition in a multi-jurisdiction environment, evidence verification through robust log management, and forensically processing digital evidence in virtual environments. Better tools and training have to be developed to enable cloud service providers, law enforcement, and customers to search and seize evidence through multiple cloud deployments. Comprehensive log management programs and processes need to be utilized to create audit trails and ensure the integrity of the data stored in the cloud. Additionally, the negative impact of virtualization in the cloud needs additional research to ensure that critical evidence is continuously saved via snapshots and processes are automated to log potential changes and malicious activities. Finally, the customers, Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), and legal systems need to standardize policies and procedures to ensure justice gets served in this ever evolving digital age. |
