

“What’s the native file format of an SMS?” Pochron says by way of example. “JSON is a poor format for legal discovery,” says Pochron, “and lawyers want data interpretable.” At the same time, he adds, “Big Law” firms will need assistance with converting that data for review.īut cloud providers aren’t the only source of cloud-based data, and the notion of a “native format” is changing as a result. Pochron says that rather than produce JSON files for opposing counsel, text or HTML is going to be a preferred native format. As a result, he says, “Someone needs to review or analyze that data, which really can’t be done until that data’s been converted to something friendlier to the human eye.”Ī related issue is the discovery process.
#OXYGEN FORENSICS CLOUD FACEBOOK LOG IN SOFTWARE#
Joseph Pochron, Senior Manager, Forensic & Integrity Services in Privacy & Cyber Response at EY, explains that a native JSON dump from software may not be useful until it’s interpreted. Each provider has its own data structure to work within its own interface, and even using API developer kits, forensic tools can struggle to normalize different fields for processing, indexing, and search - to give it analytic value.

Whether directly to the tool from a provider’s API, or using a JSON file export from a provider, data from cloud-based sources typically requires additional processing or conversion rather than data retrieved from an operating system. It can also be challenging to import data in a usable way. In some countries including the United States, this is seen by courts as overreach, with social media and cloud storage accounts - and preferably, specific data types - required to be enumerated and limited to specific date and time ranges in government search warrants. However, cloud forensic extractions aren’t as easy as importing data from cloud to tool. Many organizations and individuals also rely on cloud-based messaging platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangouts. Business documents are increasingly stored on cloud servers owned by Dropbox, Box.com, Microsoft OneDrive, Google, and many others. CNIL, in which a European court held that Europe’s “right to be forgotten” only applies to EU citizens.Ĭloud-based evidence has relevance to civil cases as well as criminal. The law appears to be catching up, too, with legislation like the United States’ Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act and California’s new GDPR-style Consumer Privacy Act, along with decisions like last September’s Google LLC v. Only a few short years ago, the idea of recovering forensic data from the cloud seemed like either troubling overreach, or unnecessarily redundant given the availability of evidence from mobile devices.Īs encryption became more prevalent on those, however, law enforcement has increasingly come to rely on cloud-based evidence to build cases.
