Digital Forensics Frameworks for Investigating Security Incidents in Cloud Environments

Abstract

Cloud computing has transformed organizational information systems by enabling scalable infrastructure, distributed applications, and remotely managed services. These capabilities also create distinctive challenges for investigating security incidents. Evidence may be distributed across multiple accounts, geographical regions, virtual machines, containers, and managed platforms, while investigators often depend on providers for access to important records. Traditional device-centered forensic procedures therefore require adaptation to environments characterized by resource elasticity, shared responsibility, limited infrastructure visibility, and rapidly disappearing artifacts. This narrative review examines digital forensics frameworks for cloud incident investigation and proposes an integrated approach connecting forensic readiness, incident scoping, evidence acquisition, preservation, analysis, and reporting. The discussion draws on NIST cloud forensic guidance, incident response recommendations, and international digital evidence standards. Particular attention is given to identity records, control-plane activity, application logs, storage artifacts, evidence provenance, and the limitations of snapshots. An illustrative graph explains how delayed collection can reduce the portion of an incident’s log interval that remains available under assumed retention conditions. The article argues that effective cloud investigations depend on capabilities established before incidents occur, including suitable logging, tested collection procedures, protected evidence repositories, and defined provider responsibilities. Framework effectiveness should be evaluated through evidence completeness, reproducibility, investigative accuracy, and operational impact rather than collection speed alone.