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

GCP Logs Explorer

GCP designed Logs Explorer to troubleshoot performance issues with applications and systems by reviewing the logs. The user interface for Logs Explorer features a histogram that displays log rates and associated spikes. Nevertheless, where there are logs, you can always use them to investigate their incident. Google also offers the Logs Explorer API, which allows automation or query logs via a Python program or any other medium through an API key. The following screenshot is an example of GCP’s histogram on Logs Explorer that highlights activities by time:

Figure 6.3 – GCP’s Logs Explorer histogram

Figure 6.3 – GCP’s Logs Explorer histogram

However, Logs Explorer only displays logs per period; it does not quantify or correlate the logs against other activities within the system. You can set the time range for which you want to see the logs, with a default log retention of 30 days. For this, GCP offers Log Analytics, a separate service that allows real-time...