A trustworthy cloud forensics environment

Abstract

The rapid migration from traditional computing and storage models to cloud computing environments has made it necessary to support reliable forensic investigations in the cloud. However, current cloud computing environments often lack support for forensic investigations and the trustworthiness of evidence is often questionable because of the possibility of collusion between dishonest cloud providers, users and forensic investigators. This chapter presents a forensics-enabled cloud environment that supports trustworthy forensics in cloud environments. The forensic environment is designed on top of the OpenStack open-source cloud operating system. The environment enables cloud service providers to provide trusted digital forensics support to customers and forensic investigators, and enables customers to establish their own forensics-friendly infrastructures without making significant financial investments.