DCF: A Novel Dynamic Forensic Framework Towards Cloud Computing Environment

The advent and gradual rise of cloud computing is redefining the way of using computer services and infrastructure. Cloud Computing is such an emerging technology that has come up with the concept of separation between infrastructure and services from each other. But the existing traditional Digital Forensics technology is facing lot of problems when it tries to cope up with the dynamic and multi-tenant architecture of the cloud. The fundamental characteristics of cloud make many assumptions and prerequisites of digital forensics to be invalid. From the reliability point of view, the importance of the role of CSP in any cloud forensics process is worth mentioning. But in this paper it has been shown that not only CSPs but the cloud consumers and investigators can also make an investigation process a disastrous one. In this respect, we have proposed a continuous Malicious Actor Identification model to be deployed at every end of the forensics architecture which will identify malicious actors simultaneously at different modules. Consequently, the forensic process can be carried out smoothly and efficiently. The proposed forensic model aims not only to reduce the overhead of the investigators but contribute towards a cost-effective forensic model too.