Log-based cloud forensic techniques: A comparative study

Abstract

Cloud computing is one of the most recent advancements in the field of distributed computing. It has gained a lot of attention due to its on demand, pay-per-use service, and all time availability, reliability, and scalability. Although it offers numerous advantages, but due to its multi-tenant architecture, it is prone to various malicious attacks and illegal activities. Cloud service provider (CSP) takes the responsibility to secure customers’ data against such attacks. In the event of such malicious activities, CSP aims to trace the intruder. Cloud forensic techniques help in identifying the attacker along with proper evidence in cloud platform. Components of clouds such as log records are then analyzed to track for such detrimental activities. In this paper, some existing log-based cloud forensic techniques have been widely studied. The detailed comparative analysis has been done for the various techniques based on their advantages and limitations. By exploring the limitations and advantages of the existing approaches, future research areas have been identified.