Digital Forensics in the Public Cloud: Comprehensive Research Report

This report provides a systemic literature review of digital forensics within the public cloud environment. It begins with an introduction outlining the background, research aims, objectives, and questions, including the security issues of the public cloud. The literature review explores the impact of cloud services on digital forensics and the challenges faced by investigators. The methodology section details the research philosophy, approach, and design, including data collection procedures (primary and secondary), data analysis techniques (qualitative and quantitative), sampling methods, and ethical considerations. The study utilizes both positivism and realism as research philosophies. Data collection involves group discussions and peer-reviewed articles analysis. The report also addresses the limitations of the study, such as time and resource management. The report concludes by summarizing the key aspects of the research methodology, emphasizing the importance of understanding the complexities faced by investigators using the public cloud.

Running head: DIGITAL FORENSICS IN THE PUBLIC CLOUD
Digital forensics in the public cloud
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Background of the study..............................................................................................................3
Research Aims and Objectives....................................................................................................3
Research Questions......................................................................................................................3
Problem Statement.......................................................................................................................3
Chapter 2: Literature Review...........................................................................................................4
Chapter Summary........................................................................................................................4
Chapter 3: Research Methodology..................................................................................................5
Research Philosophy....................................................................................................................5
Research Approach......................................................................................................................5
Research Design..........................................................................................................................5
Data Collection Process...............................................................................................................5
Data Analysis...............................................................................................................................6
Sampling Method.........................................................................................................................6
Ethical Consideration...................................................................................................................6
Limitations of the study...............................................................................................................6
Chapter Summary........................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

2DIGITAL FORENSICS IN THE PUBLIC CLOUD
Chapter 1: Introduction
The notable determination of the paper is to focus on the systemic literature review for
digital forensics in the public cloud.
Background of the study
Most of the investigative departments all around the world are making the use of cloud
computing solutions in the form of network forensics [2]. The cloud services are very much
important to protect the documents which are accessed during the investigation [5].
Research Aims and Objectives
The prime objectives of this research proposal are as followings:
 To understand the impact of using cloud services in digital forensics.
 To present how the investigators are affected due to the use of the public cloud.
Research Questions
The research questions of this proposal are as followings:
 What are the security issues of public cloud?
 What is the need for maintaining systemic literature review for digital forensics in public
cloud?
Problem Statement
The application of the public cloud in the digital forensics has security issues like
containment issues and cost management which will be discussed in the paper.

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Chapter 2: Literature Review
As mentioned by Alenezi et al. (2017), digital forensic investigations from all over the
world uses public cloud for protecting the data from security issues. The researcher of the paper
stated about the complexities of the shared access of the public cloud. The paper helps in
understanding the disruptions in the encryption method for the data which are supposed to be
shared among the investigative officers [1]. The challenge faced by the investigators is the most
significant contribution of the paper. The constraint of this paper is that it does not supports its
discussion with any case study assumptions.
As discussed by Imran, Aljawarneh and Sakib (2016), systematic and organized literature
review for digital forensics in the public cloud are very much important to deal with the cloud
forensic challenges faced by the investigators [4]. The researchers stated that the web based
evidences are managed in an efficient way with the help of the public cloud [6]. The researcher
also stated about the need of maintaining international standards. The researcher also stated the
importance of the SaaS model which is used in the client's framework [3]. The main advantage
of the paper is that it focuses on the detailed analysis of public cloud in digital forensics.
However, the prime limitation of the paper is that it does not presents the complexities of cyber
forensics.
Chapter Summary
The above two literature review can be very much important to understand the
complexities of the digital forensics faced by the investigators as they extensively use the public
cloud.

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Chapter 3: Research Methodology
Research Philosophy
The research philosophy which will be considered in this research is positivism and
realism.
 Positivism: In-depth analysis of the topic will be conducted in this proposal.
 Realism: Assumptions based on the data collection method will be beneficial for the
paper.
Research Approach
The research will be considering the opinion of both peer-reviewed scholars as well as
from a group discussion team of digital forensics.
Research Design
The research design of this proposal will be considering the both the exploratory as well
as the descriptive research designs.
 Exploratory: The concepts associated with the use of public cloud in digital forensics
will be explored.
 Descriptive: This research design will be helpful to understand the topic in a descriptive
manner.
Data Collection Process
This research proposal will be considering two types of data collection procedures:
 Primary Data collection: Data will be collected based on a group discussion with a
digital investigation team.

5DIGITAL FORENSICS IN THE PUBLIC CLOUD
 Secondary Data collection: Opinions of researchers of peer-reviewed articles will be
also considered in the paper.
Data Analysis
The two types of data analysis technique of this proposal are as followings:
 Qualitative data analysis: The primary data of the paper will be analyzed with the help
of the qualitative data analysis, statistical tools such as Microsoft Excel and SPSS.
 Quantitative data analysis: The secondary data of the paper will be analyzed with the
help of the quantitative data analysis technique as this does not involve any numerical
calculations.
Sampling Method
The sampling methods which will be used in the proposal are as follows:
 Probability: This sampling method will be used for the primary data.
 Non-probability: This sampling method will be used for the secondary data.
Ethical Consideration
The ethical considerations of this proposal are as followings:
The primary data collection procedure should be unbiased.
 The collected data should be protected and secured from privacy issues.
 Plagiarism must be avoided in this proposal.
Limitations of the study
The limitations of this proposal are as followings:

6DIGITAL FORENSICS IN THE PUBLIC CLOUD
 Time Management: Scheduling of each of the activities of the project must be done in a
professional manner.
 Resource Management: All the available resource which are needed for this proposal
such as finance must be efficiently used in a planned and organized manner.
Chapter Summary
The research methodology helps in understanding the different aspects of the proposal
such as the design, data collection procedures, data analysis, sampling rate, ethical considerations
and the limitations of the study.

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References
[1] A. Alenezi, N.H.N. Zulkipli, H.F. Atlam, R.J. Walters, and G.B. Wills, G.B.The impact of
cloud forensic readiness on security. In International Conference on Cloud Computing and
Services Science (Vol. 2, pp. 539-545). Scitepress, 2017
[2] A. Imran, S. Aljawarneh and K. Sakib. Web Data Amalgamation for Security Engineering:
Digital Forensic Investigation of Open Source Cloud. J. UCS, 22(4), pp.494-520, 2016
[3] N.H. Ab Rahman, N.D.W. Cahyani and K.K.R. Choo, K.K.R. Cloud incident handling and
forensic‐by‐design: cloud storage as a case study. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and
Experience, 29(14), p.e3868, 2017
[4] S. Zawoad, A.K. Dutta, and R. Hasan. Towards building forensics enabled cloud through
secure logging-as-a-service. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, 13(2),
pp.148-162, 2016
[5] V. Roussev, V. and S. McCulley. Forensic analysis of cloud-native artifacts. Digital
Investigation, 16, pp.S104-S113, 2016
[6] X. Zhang, C. Xu, and C. Jin. Enabling identity-based cloud storage public auditing with
quantum computers resistance. International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital
Forensics, 8(1), pp.82-98, 2016

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