دانلود رایگان ترجمه مقاله تحلیل مقایسه ای جرم یابی قانونی ابر (نشریه الزویر 2015)

چالش های فنی، راه حل ها و تحلیل مقایسه ای جرم یابی قانونی ابر 

Cloud forensics: Technical challenges, solutions and comparative analysis

Abstract

Cloud computing is arguably one of the most significant advances in information technology (IT) services today. Several cloud service providers (CSPs) have offered services that have produced various transformative changes in computing activities and presented numerous promising technological and economic opportunities. However, many cloud customers remain reluctant to move their IT needs to the cloud, mainly due to their concerns on cloud security and the threat of the unknown. The CSPs indirectly escalate their concerns by not letting customers see what is behind virtual wall of their clouds that, among others, hinders digital investigations. In addition, jurisdiction, data duplication and multi-tenancy in cloud platform add to the challenge of locating, identifying and separating the suspected or compromised targets for digital forensics. Unfortunately, the existing approaches to evidence collection and recovery in a non-cloud (traditional) system are not practical as they rely on unrestricted access to the relevant system and user data; something that is not available in the cloud due its decentralized data processing. In this paper we systematically survey the forensic challenges in cloud computing and analyze their most recent solutions and developments. In particular, unlike the existing surveys on the topic, we describe the issues in cloud computing using the phases of traditional digital forensics as the base. For each phase of the digital forensic process, we have included a list of challenges and analysis of their possible solutions. Our description helps identifying the differences between the problems and solutions for non-cloud and cloud digital forensics. Further, the presentation is expected to help the investigators better understand the problems in cloud environment. More importantly, the paper also includes most recent development in cloud forensics produced by researchers, National Institute of Standards and Technology and Amazon.

1 Introduction

The advent of cloud computing in recent years has produced major technological advancement in the way Information Technology (IT) services are provisioned and deployed. Cloud computing, which can be used by individuals as well as corporations, continues to grow at remarkable rate due to its many favorable features. Among others, adopting cloud computing users can alleviate big capital investments, replacing them with low cost and more flexible operational expenses, while taking advantage of its speed, agility, flexibility, infinite elasticity and more importantly mobility because services can be accessed anytime from anywhere. The offered features have fuelled a phenomenal growth in cloud services market. Independent studies conducted by organizations, such as the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) and Gartner, predicted a sharp increase in the adoption of cloud computing services by corporate organizations, educational institutions and Government agencies (Gartner, 2014; IEEE, 2014). A study by Market Research Media found that the global cloud computing market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 30% reaching $270 billion by 2020 (Zawaod and Hasan, 2013). The growth is mainly fuelled by the cost savings and pay per use model offered by cloud computing. A similar case study conducted on cloud migration reported an average cost saving of 37% when organizations move their infrastructures to Amazon EC2 cloud, in addition to potentially eliminating 21% of the support calls, showing compelling reasons to adopt cloud computing (KhajehHosseini et al., 2010). A recent study conducted by RightScale group on the adoption of cloud computing, concluded that cloud adoption reaches ubiquity with 87 percent of the surveyed organizations using public cloud. Amazon Web Services (AWS) leading the cloud adoption at 54 percent (RightScale, 2014).

On the other hand, Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) reported a corresponding growth in cloud vulnerability incidents. Specifically, CSA’s report shows that cloud vulnerability incidents between 2009 and 2011 have more than doubled, with top three cloud service providers (CSPs), i.e., Amazon, Google and Microsoft, accounted for 56% of all non-transparent cloud vulnerability incidents. The report also cited that the number of vulnerability incidents over the past five years has risen considerably (CSA, 2013b). The increasing security incidents in the cloud are caused, among others, by easy user account registration provided by CSPs, unfettered accessibility, and virtually unlimited computing power. In essence, attackers can open bogus accounts to the cloud, use them to carry out their acts, terminate the accounts and disappear into ether once their malicious acts have been performed. Easy access and almost unlimited power of the cloud allow the attackers, using cloud as a platform, to perform their powerful attacks from anywhere in short periods.