Cloud Forecasting: Legal Visibility Issues in Saturated Environments

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Date
2018Author
Brown, Adam J.
Glisson, William Bradley
Andel, Todd R.
Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond
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The advent of cloud computing has brought the computing power of corporate data pro-
cessing and storage centers to lightweight devices. Software-as-a-service cloud subscribers
enjoy the convenience of personal devices along with the power and capability of a service.
Using logical as opposed to physical partitions across cloud servers, providers supply flexible
and scalable resources. Furthermore, the possibility for multitenant accounts promises considerable
freedom when establishing access controls for cloud content. For forensic analysts
conducting data acquisition, cloud resources present unique challenges. Inherent proper-
ties such as dynamic content, multiple sources, and nonlocal content make it difficult for
a standard to be developed for evidence gathering in satisfaction of United States federal
evidentiary standards in criminal litigation. Development of such standards, while essential
for reliable production of evidence at trial, may not be entirely possible given the guarantees
to privacy granted by the Fourth Amendment and the Electronic Communications Privacy
Act. Privacy of information on a cloud is complicated because the data is stored on resources
owned by a third-party provider, accessible by users of an account group, and monitored according
to a service level agreement. This research constructs a balancing test for competing
considerations of a forensic investigator acquiring information from a cloud.