Book Image

Cloud Forensics Demystified

By : Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Mansoor Haqanee
Book Image

Cloud Forensics Demystified

By: Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Mansoor Haqanee

Overview of this book

As organizations embrace cloud-centric environments, it becomes imperative for security professionals to master the skills of effective cloud investigation. Cloud Forensics Demystified addresses this pressing need, explaining how to use cloud-native tools and logs together with traditional digital forensic techniques for a thorough cloud investigation. The book begins by giving you an overview of cloud services, followed by a detailed exploration of the tools and techniques used to investigate popular cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Progressing through the chapters, you’ll learn how to investigate Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and containerized environments such as Kubernetes. Throughout, the chapters emphasize the significance of the cloud, explaining which tools and logs need to be enabled for investigative purposes and demonstrating how to integrate them with traditional digital forensic tools and techniques to respond to cloud security incidents. By the end of this book, you’ll be well-equipped to handle security breaches in cloud-based environments and have a comprehensive understanding of the essential cloud-based logs vital to your investigations. This knowledge will enable you to swiftly acquire and scrutinize artifacts of interest in cloud security incidents.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Part 1: Cloud Fundamentals
6
Part 2: Forensic Readiness: Tools, Techniques, and Preparation for Cloud Forensics
10
Part 3: Cloud Forensic Analysis – Responding to an Incident in the Cloud

Google Workspace incident response

After understanding the basics of an incident as we have discussed in the Initial scoping and response section, incident responders using Google Workspace face the challenge of identifying compromises and starting threat hunting. Google Workspace, unlike Microsoft 365, offers fewer tools for this purpose, focusing mainly on its audit and reporting features. These tools, while not as extensive, are crucial for collecting logs and spotting unusual activities. This means responders often need to supplement these tools with external resources and more hands-on analysis to effectively track and investigate potential security breaches in Google Workspace environments.

Tooling

In a similar vein to our discussion on Microsoft 365, let’s explore how incident responders can leverage audit logs in Google Workspace to investigate and understand the extent of compromises:

  1. Accessing the audit logs: In Google Workspace, the audit logs are accessible...