A Metamodeling Approach for Structuring and Organizing Cloud Forensics Domain

Metamodeling is a technique that can be utilized in general to integrate and define models from various cloud computing research areas. Metamodeling method is applicable in a wide variety of application fields, particularly in the standardization process. In addition, the primary focus of this process is on identifying general ideas present in a variety of problem domains and their relations, as well as on resolving issues pertaining to the complexity, interoperability, and heterogeneity of diverse domains. Numerous models and frameworks have been proposed for cloud forensics (CF) in the literature. However, these models and frameworks are specific and developed to solve a particular cloud incident scenario. Therefore, cloud forensics is a complex, heterogeneous and ambiguous domain among domain forensic practitioners cloud computing. This study's findings led to the development of a unified meta-model that structures and organizes cloud forensics investigation domain information, making it easier for domain experts to manage, share, and reuse such knowledge. Standardization is a challenging task, owing to the relevance of information such as models, framework, and issues related to models. The proposed cloud forensics metamodels allow field practitioners to derive/instantiate a unified model for cloud forensics.