Cloud computing: Forensic challenges for law enforcement

Cloud computing is a relatively new concept that offers the potential to deliver scalable elastic services to many. The notion of pay-per use is attractive and in the current global recession hit economy it offers an economic solution to an organizations' IT needs. Computer forensics is a relatively new discipline born out of the increasing use of computing and digital storage devices in criminal acts (both traditional and hi-tech). Computer forensic practices have been around for several decades and early applications of their use can be charted back to law enforcement and military investigations some 30 years ago. In the last decade computer forensics has developed in terms of procedures, practices and tool support to serve the law enforcement community. However, it now faces possibly its greatest challenges in dealing with cloud computing. Through this paper we explore these challenges and suggest some possible solutions.