The current challenges of cloud forensics : A systematic literature review

Sammanfattning

Cloud computing is a widely used and continuously growing concept within the digital world on a global scale. As cloud computing continues to grow and expand, so does the threats it faces. The services provided by cloud computing vendors are being used for criminal and nefarious purposes more frequently as the usage of cloud services continues to rise. To crack down on this, cloud forensics was introduced, a branch of digital forensics focused on the forensic investigations of cloud services. Due to the decentralized, global and remote nature of cloud computing, cloud forensic investigators face various challenges in areas that are relatively simple in traditional digital forensics. The aim of this thesis is to contribute current and relevant knowledge to the continuously evolving topic of cloud forensics. In this systematic literature review, the current challenges of cloud forensic investigations were researched, identified and presented. The collected data from 38 research articles was analysed using a thematic analysis approach. The analysed data was categorized into 3 themes and a total of 16 codes. The results of this study reveals that within the collected literature, the most common challenge was volatile data, while the least occurring challenge was live forensics.