Blockchain based secure logging framework for cloud forensics and cyber security
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Abstract
Cloud computing has emerged as a prominent technological platform offering scalable and distributed services; however, it poses significant threats in terms of security, integrity, and reliability of log data that is used during cybersecurity and digital forensic processes. Centralized logging methods are easily susceptible to any kind of manipulation, unauthorized access, and do not provide transparency to make the stored logs trustworthy. This research therefore aims at proposing a novel method for storing log records using blockchain technology in order to enhance security, integrity, and transparency of log data in the cloud environment. This framework involves immutability, traceability, and integrity of the log records using hashing techniques, smart contracts, and hybrid data storage strategy. The main idea behind the proposed method is storing of complete log records in an off-chain manner while keeping only their hash values in the blockchain network. MATLAB simulation tests were carried out to assess vital performance metrics such as latency, throughput, storage efficiency, accuracy in detecting tampering, and block creation time. From the experimental results, it is clear that the developed framework attains almost 100% accuracy in detecting tampering and cuts down storage usage by about 85% to 90%, compared to traditional logging mechanisms. Despite the slight increase in latency due to blockchain technology, the system continues to maintain constant throughput. These findings indicate that the developed framework is a suitable solution for enhancing cloud security, guaranteeing trustworthy logging, and maintaining forensics integrity.
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