What is Cloud-Based Forensics?

In the evolving landscape of cybersecurity, cloud-based forensics has become crucial for incident response teams. With more organizations migrating their data, applications, and infrastructure to the cloud, the need to perform forensic investigations in these environments has grown rapidly. But what exactly is cloud-based forensics, and how does it differ from traditional on-premise investigations? This blog breaks down the essentials of cloud-based forensics and explains why it’s an integral part of modern incident response.

Defining Cloud-Based Forensics

Cloud-based forensics involves collecting, preserving, analyzing, and reporting on digital evidence stored within cloud environments. This includes evidence from public cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as private and hybrid clouds. Although the goal remains consistent with traditional forensics—to identify the root cause of an incident, trace the attacker’s actions, and preserve evidence—cloud forensics introduces unique complexities.

Unlike on-premise environments, cloud data often spans multiple servers, regions, and even countries. Investigators must navigate cloud provider APIs, encryption protocols, and dynamic infrastructure while ensuring evidence collection is forensically sound.

Challenges of Cloud-Based Forensics

One of the biggest challenges in cloud-based forensics is data volatility. While traditional forensics relies on static storage devices, cloud-based data can be ephemeral. Virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions might only exist for a few moments before termination, potentially erasing critical forensic evidence. Additionally, cloud environments are often multi-tenant, where multiple customers share the same infrastructure. Investigators must focus solely on data relevant to their investigation while ensuring other customers' data remains untouched, requiring in-depth knowledge of cloud provider APIs and logging systems.

More Than Log Analysis

A common misconception about cloud forensics is that it’s primarily log analysis. While logs are crucial, they represent only one aspect of a comprehensive investigation. As Cado’s blog, "Is Cloud Forensics Just Log Analysis? Kind Of," emphasizes, log data alone can overlook critical memory and disk-level evidence necessary to reconstruct complex incidents. Effective cloud forensics requires collecting a full range of artifacts, including memory dumps and full disk images, to ensure no evidence is missed, especially in multi-cloud and distributed environments.

How Cado Streamlines Cloud Forensics

The Cado Platform addresses the unique challenges of cloud forensics through automation, making data collection and analysis faster and more reliable. By integrating with cloud-native APIs, Cado captures logs, memory dumps, disk images, and other essential data across environments like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud without requiring a permanent agent. This real-time data collection is vital in dynamic cloud settings, where infrastructure changes rapidly and evidence can be overwritten or lost within seconds.

Real-Time Data Collection Across Multi-Cloud Environments

One of the most important aspects of cloud-based forensics is the ability to capture data in real time. Cado’s cloud-native architecture allows for simultaneous evidence capture across multiple cloud providers, supporting organizations with multi-cloud strategies. Real-time collection and unified investigation capabilities ensure investigators can act swiftly across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, preserving critical logs, memory, and disk images.

Ensuring Compliance and Privacy

With organizations in regulated sectors, privacy and compliance are top priorities in cloud forensics. Cado ensures that all forensic data stays within the organization’s cloud environment, maintaining compliance with regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA. This approach allows organizations to retain control over sensitive data, aligning with strict data privacy requirements.

If you want to learn more about the Cado Platform, contact us to schedule a demo.