A framework for designing cloud forensic-enabled services (CFeS)

• Published in: Requirements engineering Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 403 - 430
• Main Authors: Simou, Stavros, Kalloniatis, Christos, Gritzalis, Stefanos, Katos, Vasilios
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Springer London 01-09-2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Cloud computing; Computer Science; Constraint modelling; Cybercrime; Design; Design engineering; Designers; Engineers; Forensic computing; Investigations; Methodology; Original Article; Software Engineering; Software reliability; Cloud forensics; Cloud forensic constraints; Cloud forensic conceptual model; Cloud forensic methodology; Cloud forensic process
• ISSN: 0947-3602; 1432-010X
• DOI: 10.1007/s00766-018-0289-y

Cloud computing is used by consumers to access cloud services. Malicious actors exploit vulnerabilities of cloud services to attack consumers. The link between these two assumptions is the cloud service. Although cloud forensics assists in the direction of investigating and solving cloud-based cyber-crimes, in many cases the design and implementation of cloud services fall back. Software designers and engineers should focus their attention on the design and implementation of cloud services that can be investigated in a forensic sound manner. This paper presents a methodology that aims on assisting designers to design cloud forensic-enabled services. The methodology supports the design of cloud services by implementing a number of steps to make the services cloud forensic enabled. It consists of a set of cloud forensic constraints, a modeling language expressed through a conceptual model and a process based on the concepts identified and presented in the model. The main advantage of the proposed methodology is the correlation of cloud services’ characteristics with the cloud investigation while providing software engineers the ability to design and implement cloud forensic-enabled services via the use of a set of predefined forensic-related tasks.