Cloud Computing: The impact on digital forensic investigations

Cloud Computing (CC) as a concept and business opportunity is likely to see many organisations experiencing the ´credit crunch´, embrace the relatively low cost option of CC to ensure continued business viability and sustainability. The pay-as-you-go structure of the CC business model is typically suited to SME´s who do not have the resources to completely fulfil their IT requirements. Private end users will also look to utilise the colossal pool of resources that CC offers in an attempt to provide mobile freedom of information. However, as with many opportunities that offer legitimate users enormous benefits, unscrupulous and criminal users will also look to use CC to exploit the loopholes that may exist within this new concept, design and business model. This paper will outline the tasks that the authors undertook for the CLOIDIFIN project and highlight where the impact of CC will diversely effect digital forensic investigations.