Created in Canva
SUBMISSION DATE:23 PREPARED BY: FARAH IRDINA BINTI IBRAHIM IESHATUL RADHIAH BINTI MUTTMAEIN CLASS:JSI2614A PREPARED FOR: DR. SITI NUUR-ILABINTI MAT KAMAL OCTOBER 2026 DIGITAL INFORMATION FORENSICS (IMR543) UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA CAMPUS SEGAMAT FACULTY OF INFORMATION SCIENCE 2026116621 2026131669 PAIR ASSIGNMENT 10% ARTICLE REVIEW: DIGITAL EVIDENCE AND CLOUD FORENSICS: CONTEMPORARY LEGAL CHALLENGES AND THE POWER OF DISPOSAL RD
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to Allah SWT for giving us the strength, patience, and guidance to complete this assignment successfully. We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to our lecturer, Dr. Siti Nuur-ila binti Mat Kamal, for the valuable guidance, advice, and support throughout the completion of this assignment. The knowledge and feedback provided have helped us to better understand the topic and improve the quality of our work. We would also like to thank our classmates and friends for their cooperation, encouragement, and assistance during the preparation of this assignment. Their support and ideas were greatly appreciated. Lastly, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our family for their continuous support, encouragement, and understanding throughout our studies. Without the support of all those mentioned, the completion of this assignment would have been more challenging.
NO. TABLE OF CONTENT CONTENT PAGE 1 1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Appendix References Conclusion ArticleOverview (a) Article details (b) Research objectives (c) Scope and key issues Introduction (a) Background of the topic (b) Purpose of the review CriticalReview and Analysis (a) Argument/findings (b) Method/approach (c) Strengths and limitations Relevance to Records Management 4 5 6 10 2 2 2-3 7 8 9
1 1.0 INTRODUCTION A. Background of Topic B. Purpose of the Review This article's review is to explore the practical and legal issues of recognizing, collecting, conserving, and exploiting digital evidence in the cloud. A particular focus is paid to the impact of cloud storage on traditional methods of jurisdiction, data control, access, and evidence in criminal investigations. The article also discusses the constraints of current legal instruments to resolve these challenges and the authors' proposed alternatives. The article is about the increasing use of cloud storage, a technology that allows people to store and access data from a remote location over the internet from almost any place. Digital evidence, including files, emails, images, logs, and messages, is crucial in cybercrime investigations. It needs to be documented and preserved in a manner that will allow it to be admissible, authentic, reliable, comprehensive, and intelligible for admission into court. The challenges of cloud storage are therefore even greater as data can be easily altered or deleted, replicated to several servers and countries, and accessed via web accounts without physical devices (Karagiannis & Vergidis, 2021).
2 A. Article Details 2.0 ARTICLE OVERVIEW B. Research Objective C. Scope and Key Issues The article chosen for this review is titled “Digital Evidence and Cloud Forensics: Contemporary Legal Challenges and the Power of Disposal.” It is authored by Christos Karagiannis and Kostas Vergidis, and published in 2021 in the journal Information, volume 12, article 181. It was published on 22nd April 2021. The article is about the "Cloud Forensics Dilemma," where traditional forensics that rely on the physical presence of material evidence do not apply to cloud storage environments that are remote and geo-dispersed. The article explores the legal possibility and consequences of the police obtaining and using digital evidence from cloud services without violating privacy and due process rights. It focuses on data relevant to criminal investigations stored in an unmanaged private cloud, especially when the suspect does not permit access. It includes: • Digital evidence’s nature and legal requirements. • SaaS environments and cloud storage. • International cooperation mechanisms and legal approaches in the United States and European countries. • • A court case between Greece and a Greek company about cloud data. The suggested power-of-disposal concept to solve the issue. The objective of the article is to present a thorough examination of the legal issues that arise when crucial digital evidence is kept in cloud environments. The authors want to explore in particular the procedures of territoriality, possession, and confiscation, particularly with regard to user authentication and data preservation in these three issues. In addition, the article evaluates relevant international, European, and American legal mechanisms. Additionally, the authors suggest the "Power of Disposal” as a multidisciplinary legal concept to improve international collaboration in cloud-forensics investigations and establish an individual's control over data kept in the cloud.
3 The main issues in cloud forensics include territoriality, since the cloud data might be stored in more than one country, and jurisdiction can therefore be problematic. To be admissible in court, the evidence that is presented in the case should be authentic, trustworthy, complete, and legally obtained. At the same time, investigators have to also consider privacy and legal rights issues and contend with traditional legal rights such as mutual legal assistance agreements that are often time- consuming when data can easily move across borders.
4 A. Argument/Findings 3.0 CRITICAL REVIEW AND ANALYSIS Karagiannis and Vergidis (2021) argue that because cloud computing allows data to be stored remotely, dispersed over several sites, managed by various parties, and situated outside the jurisdiction of investigative authorities, it has put traditional approaches to digital evidence to the test. Three main legal issues are identified by the authors: "possession" (ownership and control of cloud content), "territoriality" (location of cloud-stored data and jurisdiction of investigating authorities), and "confiscation procedures" (especially those involving user authentication and evidence preservation). They argue that cooperation between legal, technical, organizational, and international agencies is necessary to effectively address these issues, as national laws alone are insufficient. When dealing with the complexity of acquiring digital evidence from cloud environments, the article emphasizes limits in existing American, European, and international legal systems. Traditional conceptions of jurisdiction and possession can be difficult to apply when data is scattered across different nations, and the roles of users and cloud service providers complicate determining control over that data. The authors highlight legal uncertainties about law enforcement officials' access to and procurement of cloud-based evidence. To address these issues, they propose using the Power of Disposal as a legal connecting factor to determine an individual's control over cloud-stored data. This idea refers to the capacity to access, edit, delete, suppress, or prohibit others from using specific data. The authors emphasize the need for international legal cooperation and multidisciplinary collaboration while investigating cloud- related crime.
5 2. 1. B. Method/Approach The article uses a qualitative legal and conceptual analysis rather than an experiment or survey. 3. Conceptual Approach The authors suggest usingthepower of disposal as a global legal framework to establish the relationship between peopleand cloud-based data. This approach focuses on the ability to access, modify, delete, restrict,or otherwise manage the data as opposed to just relying on where the data is stored. Legal Framework Analysis Literature and Document Review The authors review existing scholarly literature, forensic rules, laws, and policies related to cloud storage and digital evidence. This evaluation helps in determining existing practical and legal challenges for collecting, preserving, and recovering digital evidence from a cloud- based environment. The authors compare the legalapproaches for acquisition and access to digital evidence in cloud services in the United States, Europe, and other countries. This includes a consideration of the differences and challenges to the examination and collection of evidence held in the cloud in the context of the Budapest Convention, U.S. legal frameworks, as well as planned EUregulations. To summarize, the article covers the laws, legal theories, technical aspects, and a court case, and it proposes a solution to cloud-forensics issues.
6 C. Strength/Limitations The article's main strength is its broad legal-technical analysis of cloud evidence, and its main limitation is that it is largely conceptual and does not empirically test its proposed solution. However, this article also has its limitations, which are that it has no empirical testing. The article contains no surveys, interviews, case files, or operational testing to prove the power-of- disposal strategy to be an effective investigative tool during real investigations. Secondly, there is limited evidence from case law. It cannot explain how the proposal could be interpreted by courts in most jurisdictions, since the practical discussion is based on only one decision in a Greek court. Thirdly, the article has limited implementation details. The framework specifies less in terms of specific procedures for judicial review, technical verification, provider cooperation and cross-border enforcement. Finally, risks concerning privacy, communications secrecy, data protection, defense rights and proportionality are identified, but not adequately explained as to the standards for balancing these rights against the right to investigative access, which leaves the issue of rights balances unresolved. The first strength of this article is its well-defined problem structure. It categorizes cloud- forensics problems into three categories which are territoriality, copyright of cloud content, user authentication and data preservation. Secondly, the multidisciplinary view, which includes legal aspects of jurisdiction, evidence and privacy, as well as technical aspects of cloud such as redundancy, metadata, logs, and shared servers. The next strength is in the practical illustration of law. The Greek court ruling illustrates the different meanings of cloud storage and how it could affect investigations. Lastly is the comparative legal coverage. It evaluates international, European, and American policies, such as the CLOUD Act, the Budapest Convention, and European evidence-order plans.
7 4.0 RELEVANCE TO RECORD MANAGEMENT The article by Karagiannis and Vergidis (2021) is relevant to record management because Cloud- based records can be stored across multiple countries and servers, which creates significant concerns related to ownership, legal authority, record custody, access rights, retention, preservation, and accountability. The article’s focus on user authentication alongside data preservation matters greatly for defending the authenticity, integrity, and evidentiary weight of digital records. In addition, the proposed Power of Disposal concept is pertinent to records management because it clarifies who is entitled to access, alter, delete, or limit the use of information stored in the cloud. Such factors are crucial for sustaining proper oversight of records throughout their entire lifecycle. To put it simply, the article makes a strong case for robust cloud records management, grounded in explicitly stated governance policies, trustworthy preservation practices, fitting access controls, recorded accountability, and teamwork among legal, technical, and organizational parties.
8 5.0 CONCLUSION In conclusion, the article by Karagiannis and Vergidis (2021) provides a thorough analysis of the practical and legal issues related to managing digital evidence in cloud systems. The three main issues that the authors address are territoriality, possession, and confiscation. The Power of Disposalconcept is also suggested in the article as a possible way of evaluating an individual's controlover cloud-based data. However, the idea tends to be theoretical and hasn't been put to the test inactual research. The article is generally relevant to the field of records management, as cloud records need to be managed with appropriate access control, preservation, authenticity, accountability, and governance. Efficient administration of cloud records also depends on partnership between legal, technical and organizational entities. The article provides useful ideas on the need for better legislation and effective record-keeping processes to ensure digital records are reliable, secure, and available for use as evidence, without limitations
9 6.0 REFERENCES https://doi.org/10.1145/3560107.3560114 Karagiannis, C., & Vergidis, K. (2021b). Digital Evidence and cloud forensics: Contemporary legal challenges and the power of disposal. Information, 12(5), 181. https://doi.org/10.3390/info12050181 MaratsiM. I., Popov, O., Alexopoulos, C., & Charalabidis, Y. (2022). Ethical and legal aspects of digital forensics algorithms: The case of digital evidence acquisition. Proceedings of the 15 International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, 32-40. th
10 7.0 APPENDIX Figure 1: Digital Evidence and Cloud Forensics: Contemporary Legal Challenges and the Power of Disposal Article
11 Individual Assignment (10%) 1. Article Summary CLO3: Explain the relationship between Forensic Evidence Investigation and Records Management. (A4) Total Clarity (Logical flow and coherenceof the summary) Accuracy Cohesion Presentation Criteria Comprehension & Conciseness (Understanding of key ideas and details from the article) 1 - Poor Fails to convey the main ideas. Extremely verbose or overly brief; lacks focus. 2 - Fair Some main ideas are present but unclear. Some unnecessary details; lacks conciseness. 3 - Good Main ideas are mostly clear but lack depth. Generally concise but includes some extraneous information. 4 - Very Good Main ideas are clear and well-articulated. Mostly concise with minimal unnecessary details. 5 - Excellent Thorough understanding of all main ideas and nuances. Exceptionally concise and focused; no extraneous information. Exceptionally clear and engaging; excellent flow and structure. Marks 20 Minimal eye contact, monotone voice, and little audience engagement. Numerous inaccuracies or misinterpretations of the article's content. Lacks logical flow; ideas are disjointed. Difficult to understand; poor sentence structure. Some inaccuracies present, affecting overall understanding. Some cohesion present, but transitions are weak or unclear. Limited audience engagement; lacks confidence or enthusiasm. Some clarity issues; awkward phrasing. Moderate engagement with acceptable confidence. Mostly accurate with minor errors that do not detract significantly from understanding. Generally cohesive with some logical flow; minor issues in transitions. Generally clear but may have minor issues in flow or structure. Clear and well- structured; easy to follow. Strong cohesion with clear transitions between ideas. Confident, engaging, and demonstrates strong presentation skills. Very accurate with only negligible errors. Exceptionally cohesive; seamless transitions enhance readability and understanding. Exceptionally confident, dynamic, and engages the audience effectively. Completely accurate; faithfully represents the original article's content. 20 20 20 20 /100 x 10% =