In a lawsuit, can your cloud provider get key evidence you need?

Any business that anticipates using cloud-based services should be asking the question: What can my cloud provider do for me in terms of providing digital forensics data in the event of any legal dispute, civil or criminal case, cyberattack or data breach?

It's going to be different for every provider, according to the industry insiders and legal experts who discussed this topic during a panel session at the recent RSA Conference. And complicating cloud-based forensics is that the high-tech industry is still scratching its collective head over basic requirements, some of which are being pounded out now in the Cloud Forensics Working Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

"In cloud, we're still struggling with definitions," said Steven Teppler, partner at the Sarasota, Fla.-based law firm Kirk-Pinkerton PA in its information governance and electronic discovery practice. "This causes problems for attorneys. We may not get answers that are complete because we don't know what to ask."