Towards the Development of a Digital Forensic Readiness Model for 5G NFV Environments

5G has revolutionized wireless cellular networks by providing faster speeds, higher capacity, and lower latency. Key 5G technologies include Network Functional Virtualization (NFV) and network slicing. NFV replaces dedicated network appliances with virtualized instances running on commercial off-the-shelf hardware. As the use of 5G networks becomes widespread, the utilisation of these 5G technologies, specifically NFV has created an avenue for cybercriminals to perform cyberattacks including VNF location shift and DNS amplification attacks. Investigating these attacks in 5G NFV environments requires proactive approaches such as Digital Forensic Readiness (DFR). The challenge lies in the lack of suitable forensic tools and standards for DFR in volatile 5G NFV environments, hindering the collection of Potential Digital Evidence (PDE). This paper proposes a model to enable DFR in 5G NFV environments, addressing the need for robust forensic processes amidst evolving network architectures and security threats.