Forensic Collection of Electronic Evidence from Infrastructure-As-a-Service Cloud Computing

As cloud computing becomes ubiquitous, the criminal targeting and criminal use of cloud computing is inevitable and imminent. Similarly, the need for civil forensic analyses of cloud computing has become more prevalent. Forensic investigation of cloud computing matters first requires an understanding of the technology and issues associated with the collection of electronically stored information (“ESI”) in the cloud. The misuse of the broad term “cloud computing” has caused some confusion and misinformation among legal and technology scholars, leading to a muddied and incomplete analysis of cloud-based discovery issues.

Cases and academic analyses have dealt primarily with popular online services such as Gmail and Facebook, but they omit discussions of commercial cloud computing providers’ fundamental infrastructure offerings.