Digital Forensics and Incident Response - University Assignment

This report delves into the realm of digital forensics and incident response (DFIR), emphasizing its critical role in cybersecurity. It defines digital forensics as the collection and evaluation of digital evidence to address cyber threats and details how DFIR combines two essential cybersecurity domains to examine breaches and malware. The report underscores the necessity of incident response policies and the importance of a specialized team to monitor, handle, and report cyberattacks. The author shares their personal learning experience, highlighting the significance of incident classification, prioritization, data collection from various sources, and the elimination of malicious activity. The report also discusses the importance of choosing the right DFIR approach and using digital forensic tools for effective decision-making and concludes that incident response is vital for detecting and mitigating cybersecurity issues and preventing future attacks. References to relevant literature are included.

Running head: DIGITAL FORENSICS
Digital forensics and incident response
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1DIGITAL FORENSICS
Digital forensics and incident response
Digital forensics may be defined as the collection and evaluation of digital evidence that is
present in electronic systems and the following response to potential attacks and threats.
Digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) is the use of forensics for cybersecurity by
examining breaches and malware in the data (Luttgens, Pepe and Mandia 2014). DFIR is the
combination of two of the essential domains of cybersecurity, considering the increasing
number of testified violations over the past few years. Any organization needs to have the
ability to respond to cyber-attacks immediately. Tackling such incidents effectively requires
specialized training and expertise in technical domains, which include operations system
design, file systems, intelligence system and host attack vectors. A policy for incident
response has become vital with the growing trends of a data breach in organizations. The
team responsible for incident response in any organization has to monitor, handle incidents
and report suspected breaches or attacks (Nikkel 2014).
Personal learning experience
During the course on digital forensics, the field that particularly interested me was the part of
the incident response. This is because I realized that with the growing trends of breaches,
litigations and frauds in the corporate sector, incident response is an integral part of digital
forensics which each organization will need (Elyas et al. 2014). I assimilated that when an
incident is reported, it is essential to outline a workflow of the procedure consisting of the
guidelines to manage the issue. It helped me learn that the immediate response includes
classification of the incident into minor, standard or critical and prioritizing the incident as
low, medium or high. After successfully prioritizing the incident, the primary goal is to
minimize the count of affected endpoints to prevent the spread of the problem to other
devices and therefore contain the issue. Further, I learned that it involves collecting discrete

2DIGITAL FORENSICS
data from all the sources possible which include hard drives, tracked web browsers, history of
emails, file registration logs and often even endpoints that are off-network. The subsequent
step involves eliminating the cause of the malicious activity, which could be unauthorized
access to the network, malware or compromised accounts.
My learning experience also involved that the management of DFIR is highly dependent on
the route chosen, which needs to be determined carefully. It includes the review and
assessment of the incident, acquiring the learning outcomes and the implementation of the
strategies and processes to prevent the same attack again in the future (Montasari 2016). I
also learned during the course that the use of digital forensic tools help the security teams to
make the most suitable decisions and measures to respond to the potential threat
appropriately. I obscured that a successful response to the incident involves the collection of
data, evaluation of the situation with the help of advanced tools and technologies available
and immediate response to the incident.
Conclusion
In conclusion, incident response is an essential application of digital forensics and constitutes
a significant role in almost every organization. It is a valuable tool to detect and reduce
cybersecurity issues at an early stage and to prevent any similar attacks in the future.

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References
Elyas, M., Maynard, S.B., Ahmad, A. and Lonie, A., 2014. Towards a systemic framework
for digital forensic readiness. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 54(3), pp.97-105.
Luttgens, J.T., Pepe, M. and Mandia, K., 2014. Incident response & computer forensics.
McGraw-Hill Education Group.
Montasari, R., 2016. A comprehensive digital forensic investigation process
model. International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, 8(4), pp.285-302.
Nikkel, B.J., 2014. Fostering incident response and digital forensics research. Digital
Investigation, 11(4), pp.249-251.