Cloud forensic readiness: Foundations

Abstract

The advances of the ICT industry in recent years has led to huge popularity of Cloud Computing Services. Due to the fact that the Cloud is distributed and hosts numerous users, its use to commit crimes becomes a critical issue. Proactive cloud forensics becomes a matter of urgency: its capability to collect critical data before crimes happen, thus saving time and energy for the investigations is its primary objective. In this paper, we discuss the basis of Cloud Forensic Readiness, because we believe that such a system is of huge necessity. We begin by carefully defining Digital Forensic Readiness in the Cloud Computing context. We propose a reference architecture for a Cloud Forensic Readiness System (CFRS) together with its features, components, and challenges.