Towards the development of a cloud forensics methodology: A conceptual model

Abstract

Cloud Computing technology and services despite the advantages they bring to the market have created number of issues regarding the security and trust of the individuals using them. Incidents occurring in cloud computing environments are hard to be solved since digital forensic methods used to conduct digital investigations are not suitable for cloud computing investigations since they do not consider the specific characteristics of the Cloud. However, designing services over the cloud that will support and assist an investigation process when an incident occurs is also of vital importance. This paper presents a conceptual model for supporting the development of a cloud forensics method and process, thus assisting information systems developers in building better services and investigators to be able to conduct forensics analysis in cloud environments.