Legal Challenges in Cloud Forensics Completed Research

As the cloud landscape and its number of users continues to grow, so does the amount of criminal activity and evidence on and in the cloud. The need for capable cloud forensic investigations is increasing; however, owing to the slow pace of legal systems compared with the inherent rapidity of technological change, the field of Cloud Forensics is faced with many legal issues and challenges, including blurred jurisdictional boundaries; lack of physical access to media; admissibility of evidence; data ownership uncertainties; and weak chain of custody proofs. The bulk of the research focuses not on technical challenges, but on cloud computing and its associated legal challenges. It sheds light on these legal issues by exploring and identifying legal challenges and lacking existence of standards for cloud forensic investigations. To alleviate difficulties faced in cloud forensic investigations, multiple recommendations are offered.