Forensic-by-Design Framework for Cyber-Physical Cloud Systems

As businesses continue to offer customers and employees increased access, improved software functionality, and continued improvements in supply chain management opportunities, it raises the risk of cyber-physical attacks on cyber-physical cloud systems (CPCS). In this article, the authors discuss the challenges associated with a CPCS attack and highlight the need for forensic-by-design, prior to presenting their conceptual CPCS forensic-by-design model. The six factors of the framework are discussed, namely, risk management principles and practices, forensic readiness principles and practices, incident handling principles and practices, laws and regulation, CPCS hardware and software requirements, and industry-specific requirements. Future research topics are also identified.