All organisations face threats at one point or another, but having a viable data analysis and threat management protocol is crucial to avoid data leakages and minimise impacts across the entire company. And that’s precisely where digital forensics and incident response teams come in!
If you're relatively new to cyber security or want to learn more about defensive digital strategies, you'll want to stick with us. In this ultimate introduction to digital forensics and incident response, we’ll cover everything from basic definitions to best practices. We’ll even guide you toward the hands-on rooms, open-source tools, and training modules that’ll give you the confidence to ace an interview (even as an entry-level candidate!).
Sounds promising? We thought so!
What are digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) teams?
Before we dive into the more technical side of things, let’s start with a few simple definitions.
As you might expect from its name, Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) encompasses two separate components.
· Digital Forensics is a subsection of cyber security that involves gathering and analysing electronic data and virtual evidence. It’s a defensive cyber security subfield that aims to identify the mechanisms behind hacking, malware, and data breaches.
· Incident Response covers an organisation's entire process for preparing for, managing, and containing a data breach. So, while digital forensics experts reconstruct and analyse cyber attacks using digital evidence, incident response teams isolate the systems, destroy malware, and restore network integrity.
Analysts involved with digital forensics will typically focus on recovering and investigating any material found in an organisation’s digital devices.
By tracking and documenting evidence of digital crime in its original form, it’s far easier for an organisation to form a structured investigation to present to a court of law. For this reason, digital forensics investigators must be able to write reports that adhere to strict legal protocols (after all, they could well be called on as expert witnesses in court!).
Equally, having digital information in an unaltered form allows organisations to assess vulnerabilities by reconstructing attacks and events as they happen. This way, security teams can find and patch any issues to prevent breaches from happening again.
Now that you understand the concept of DFIR teams, let's explore the challenges in the field, best practices, and typical processes.
Significant challenges in the digital forensics and incident response field
As technology continues to evolve, cyber threats and the profound growth of data present serious challenges to digital forensics and incident response experts.
Not only must these analysts tackle data from far more sources than they used to, but the sheer volume of complex data means processing and analysis is more time-consuming and difficult (with enormous margins for potential errors).
An ever-increasing volume of data and dispersed data
If you think about just how many devices there are in an average office, it's easy to see why securing them is challenging.
An average corporation creates an estimated 328.77 million terabytes of data daily, which is only set to grow as technology becomes more sophisticated. By 2025, the amount of data generated globally will hit an unfathomable 463 exabytes daily. Now, that’s a lot of data!
However, the main issue here arises when a data breach occurs. More than 80% of all firms say they've been hacked at some point, which puts the DFIR team in the difficult position of sifting through substantial data reams to find malicious activity.
When you consider that this data is also spread across different servers, cloud storage platforms, and networks, sorting through it and presenting reports is tough. Oh, and that doesn’t even account for the chain of custody and order of volatility you'll need to bear in mind for digital forensics!
Don’t worry - we’ll get to that.
Cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated, with attack surfaces expanding
Attack surfaces rapidly expand as more organisations use cloud technology, remote work devices, and high-tech mobiles. And the threat scope widens whenever an organisation adds a new person or device to its network.
It's also worth mentioning that third-party software, poor password management, and general human error can seriously increase an organisation's vulnerability to cyber criminals.
Both digital forensics and incident response teams rely on responding rapidly to threats. But with so many layers of technology to comb through and the increase of novel attack methods, response times can increase.
Lack of adequate tools and glaring skills gaps
The cyber security industry suffers from a significant skills gap, with many organisations desperate to recruit skilled experts to protect their digital assets. However, despite increased interest in the sector from graduates, the global cyber workforce shortfall will still be around 3.5 million people by 2025.
To try and close the gap, organisations need to upskill their current workforce while appealing to potential new hires. Overall, this talent gap will lead to investigative delays and a failure to spot malware or network intrusion attempts.
Needing to preserve evidence
One of the main things digital forensics experts must do is preserve evidence to present in court. However, as digital environments are ever-changing and dynamic, preserving memory dumps and ensuring valid data retrieval across all platforms is incredibly tricky.
If these digital forensics experts can't show an unbroken chain of custody, evidence may not be admissible in court. Failing to preserve evidence properly in lower-risk scenarios may also allow threats to go undetected.
The integration between the Digital Forensics and Incident Response fields
While digital forensics and incident response teams work closely together, they do differ quite a bit. Digital forensics analysts must interact seamlessly with incident response teams to provide accurate and workable information so that the incident responders can take action (and fast!).
It's a tricky balancing act - digital forensics is in-depth and time-consuming, while incident response relies on quick and dynamic action. However, by integrating the teams well, they can be proactive and respond to breaches with minimal damage to internal systems.
What Are the Main Types of Digital Forensics?
There are several common types of digital forensics, but they usually fall under a few set subcategories.
These are:
· Computer Forensics focuses on computers and digital storage, aiming to establish a clear trail of custody for recovered evidence.
· Mobile Device Forensics: This is all about recovering evidence from mobile phones and devices. It can also cover tablets, GPS devices, and anything else with internal memory considered "mobile"!
· Network Forensics: This subsection of digital forensics focuses on network activities and monitors network data. It's possibly the most complex type, as network data constantly shifts, changes, and updates. So, gathering meaningful evidence can be far more difficult during a cyberattack.
· Database Forensics: This subfield concerns the analysis of databases and their associated metadata. It can uncover fraudulent and malicious activity, but it is often used as a proactive tracking measure instead of a reactive one.
· Forensic Data Analysis: Also known as FDA, this branch of digital forensics is often employed in cybercrime cases. It offers organisations the factual information they need to take legal action and compliance measures after a breach.
The Digital Forensics Process (Step-By-Step)
Digital forensics experts will spring into action when a threat investigation is underway. They'll start by looking at artifacts before preserving evidence, maintaining the chain of custody, and creating a timeline of events.
If you’re new to digital forensics, it’s far easier to split these different tasks into five separate stages:
1. Identification
2. Preservation
3. Analysis
4. Documentation
5. Presentation
Now, let’s look at each of these steps in more detail.
Identification
The identification stage involves narrowing down a list of devices and networks that may contain relevant data that you’ll assess during the investigation. This may include personal devices like mobiles or be limited to company-owned computers.
The devices will be seized and isolated from the rest of the server or network while the investigation is ongoing, If there’s any data on the cloud, this information will also be isolated (and only the DFIR team will have access to it during the investigation!).
Preservation
Once systems and devices have been isolated, you’ll move into the preservation stage of the investigation. This is where you’ll use forensic tools and techniques (that we’ll discuss later!) to pull any relevant data. Whether you're creating a copy via a forensic image or moving data to a secure space, it'll all happen here.
Analysis
The analysis phase involves examining data for any evidence of wrongdoing. This can include damaged, deleted, or encrypted files (but it’s certainly not limited to that!). This process may also involve keyword searches to identify relevant information or carving data by searching deleted files. This stage is also where evidence-building happens for any court case.
Documentation
When a digital forensics team has thoroughly analysed all the seized data, they'll draw their evidence into a straightforward document that outlines their entire process from start to finish. The document will also showcase a clear timeline of activities, including cyber attacks, data leakage, and network breaches.
Presentation
The final step of the digital forensics process comes when the investigation documentation is presented to a court or committee for assessment. This isn’t always in a court of law, but digital forensics experts may be called on to act as witnesses or explain their findings further on behalf of an organisation. Talk about responsibility!
Just getting started?
If you're new to Digital Forensics and Incident Response, you should explore our introductory room for DFIR. Lasting around 90 minutes and covering basic concepts, tools, and processes, it's an excellent way to ease yourself in (without overwhelming you!).
The Incident Response Process (Step-By-Step)
A cyber security incident response plan is the starting point for tackling any major organisational incident. It should be drawn out before an incident happens and give data forensics and incident response specialists a clear vision of what to do during a cyber attack.
It should also cover what should happen before an incident, during an incident, and directly afterward to mitigate any negative impacts on the organisation.
There are no hard and fast rules for exactly what a plan should consist of, as it varies from industry to industry.
However, incident response plans typically include the following key elements:
· Key contacts to get in touch with during an incident.
o This often includes Legal teams, HR teams, Insurance teams, and Senior Management representatives. A good incident response plan will consist of names, contact numbers, and alternative contacts should the primary ones not be available.
· Determined roles for your team during an emergency are outlined in a formal document.
· Clearly defined criteria for what constitutes an incident to allow teams to allocate adequate and appropriate manpower to manage major and minor incidents.
· Cyber threat preparation and incident detection documentation that outlines procedures to follow during a threat or breach.
· A transparent management and containment process that all members of the team understand. This process can include unplugging affected machines, isolating resources, interviewing users, and retaining forensic evidence to aid mitigation.
· Testing plans that clearly outline the steps needed to bring machines and software back into use.
· Steps for a post-incident review and patching plans to solve vulnerabilities.
During an incident, response teams will typically run through the following steps
1. They will start by detecting the threat and determining the severity of the incident at hand.
2. They’ll then move into the containment phase to halt the adverse effects of an incident while trying to prevent further damage past the initial attack.
3. Past this point, it’s all about post-incident recovery and learning from mistakes. Once the incident response team contains the threat, all relevant parties (including DFIR representatives) will meet to discuss how security can be improved in the future. They'll also discuss tactics used to contain the incident and assess where they may want to alter their approach next time.
Believe it or not, 77% of recent respondents to a recent Ponemon survey stated that they lacked a formal Incident Response Plan. Considering there has been a 1517% increase in cyber crime incidents in the last 20 years, it's clear why acting quickly to contain threats is crucial.
Want to level up your skills?
Are you not sure where to start as an Incident Responder? Our dedicated Incident Response Module will guide you through tactical rooms and proven processes to prime yourself for log analysis, ELK, threat hunting, and everything in between!
What are the most common DFIR tools?
While this list isn’t necessarily exhaustive, let's examine the most common Digital Forensics and Incident Response tools you may use on a day-to-day basis.
Eric Zimmerman’s tools
If you’re wondering who Eric Zimmerman is, he's a Principal instructor in the Digital Forensics and Incident Response curriculum for the SANS Institute. However, he’s also created an excellent set of tools that enable users to perform forensic analysis on the Windows Platform.
Called EZ Tools, this collection of open-source tools can speed up (and essentially automate!) bulk forensic analysis. From prefetch to jump lists, you'll get an excellent insight into using these tools in our Windows Forensics 1 and Windows Forensics 2 rooms.
KAPE
KAPE stands for Kroll Artifact Parser and Extractor, and it's an excellent digital forensics and breach notification tool. The tool is designed to find forensically useful artifacts and parse them for you within a few minutes.
It is free for education and research use and helps digital forensics experts enrich their evidence libraries while processing any collected files. KAPE is also incredibly fast, allowing users to collect key artifacts and evidence before the imaging process starts. In short, it collects data far quicker than any human can!
Volatility
Volatility is a must-download tool for memory analysis. It effortlessly extracts valuable data from any machine under investigation. It focuses on Windows and Linux Operating Systems and is entirely free and available for anyone to use.
Just be aware that it’s written in Python, so it’s worth getting up to speed on this coding language before diving into our easy-to-follow Volatility Room.
Autopsy®
Autopsy® is another completely open-source platform for analysing data from digital media. It examines disk images, local drives, and local files, and can even assess mobile devices.
The innovative plug-in architecture also allows you to develop custom modules in Java or Python and present valuable information from raw data sources.
If you need help getting started with this software, we highly recommend running through our speedy Autopsy® Room.
Velociraptor
While it may sound like something out of Jurassic Park, Velociraptor is an advanced endpoint-monitoring, forensics, and response platform. Despite being completely open-source, it's certainly mighty.
It actively searches for suspicious activities using a library of forensic artifacts and continuously tracks endpoint events like logs, file modifications, and process execution. It lets you quickly investigate any alerts and triage them (all while being open-source!).
If you want to learn more about this software, TryHackMe’s dedicated Velociraptor Room has you covered.
Redline
Most digital forensics specialists will need access to an endpoint security tool, and Redline is genuinely one of the best. It offers host investigative capabilities that allow users to find signs of malicious activity quickly and easily. It gathers crucial information from a computer’s RAM and hugely cuts down the time it takes to investigate breaches on a Windows system.
Best practices for Digital Forensics and Incident Response
Following a set of best practices to reduce an incident’s impact is always an excellent idea.
Despite occasionally falling under the same umbrella as DFIR teams, best practices can look surprisingly different between digital forensics and incident response.
Digital Forensics
· Identify the scale of an investigation and ensure you maintain a chain of custody throughout the process.
· Preserve evidence and ensure no alterations to the data at hand. This may involve using forensic imagery or write-blocking software where necessary.
· Examine data and use search techniques and tools to sift through large batches of evidence.
· Maintain data integrity by working on forensic copies or duplicated datasets.
· Accurately report all findings in a concise way that outlines exactly how you obtained evidence. These methods should adhere to compliance standards to ensure your evidence is permissible in court (if necessary).
Incident Response
· Build a rock-solid incident response plan that outlines roles, responsibilities, and mitigation strategies. The plan should also outline business continuity measures to minimise the impact on the organisation.
· Engage in regular drill protocols and gamified training modules that’ll teach teams to be calm and prepared in high-pressure attack scenarios.
· Make sure all roles and responsibilities within a team are clearly defined and well-suited to an individual’s specific skills.
· Understand everything about the eradication and remediation stage and ensure you're ready to tackle threats as they occur.
· Establish escalation criteria if any part of the incident response needs to go to senior management members.
· Learn from incidents and work them into training and monitoring strategies in the future.
Why are Digital Forensics and Incident Response teams so important?
Digital Forensics and Incident Response Teams offer organisations more effective threat prevention, giving them the power to tackle known and unknown threats.
The beauty of combining digital forensics and digital response is that it gives teams the power to follow consistent protocols, minimise reputational damage, and recover from security incidents more quickly.
Oh, and it retains valuable evidence that you can use to prosecute threat actors!
There we have it!
The ultimate guide to digital forensics and incident response that should have you itching to get started!
If you’re interested in upskilling and maximising your potential with hands-on, gamified training, TryHackMe’s innovative modules are here to help. Not only will our customisable labs keep your training in line with new threats and trends, but you’ll be honing marketable cyber security skills that modern employers will love.
Better yet, TryHackMe’s Digital Forensics and Incident Response module is suited to all users. So, whether you’re an entry-level candidate or an experienced blue teamer looking to sharpen your skills, you'll find something valuable to add to your arsenal. And hey, those industry-recognised certifications look stellar on CVs and job applications, too!
Ben Spring