Locating and tracking digital objects in the cloud

Abstract

One of the biggest stumbling blocks in a cloud forensic investigation is the inability to determine the physical location of a digital object in the cloud. In order to provide better accessibility to users, data in the cloud is not stored at a single location, but is spread over multiple data centers. This chapter proposes a model for providing data provenance and reporting on the provenance of a digital object in the cloud. It also examines how data provenance can be used to track where a digital object has been in the cloud and where the object can be found at any point in time. A special file type (wrapper) that encapsulates a digital object and its provenance data is proposed. The design helps preserve the integrity of provenance data and meets many of the requirements set for data provenance, including the support of cloud forensic investigations. The implementation requires each cloud service provider to maintain a central logging server that reports on the locations of wrapped objects in its domain.