Cloud computing and digital forensics are emerging fields of technology.
others
Description
Cloud computing and digital forensics are emerging fields of technology. Unlike traditional digital
forensics where the target environment can be almost completely isolated, acquired and can be
under the investigators control; in cloud environments, the distribution of computation and storage
poses unique and complex challenges to the investigators. Recently, the term “cloud forensics” has
an increasing presence in the field of digital forensics. In this state-of-the-art review, we included the
most recent research efforts that used “cloud forensics” as a keyword and then classify the literature
into three dimensions: (1) survey-based, (2) technology-based and (3) forensics-procedural-based.
We discuss widely accepted standard bodies and their efforts to address the current trend of cloud
forensics. Our aim is not only to reference related work based on the discussed dimensions, but
also to analyse them and generate a mind map that will help in identifying research gaps. Finally,
we summarize existing digital forensics tools and the available simulation environments that can
be used for evidence acquisition, examination and cloud forensics test purposes.
Keywords: digital forensics, cloud computing, cloud forensics, state-of-the-art
