Forensic Analysis

Digital forensic analysis is a specialized discipline within incident response that focuses on the rigorous examination of digital evidence. Unlike general incident response, which prioritizes containment and recovery, forensics emphasizes evidence integrity and chain of custody — maintaining documented control over evidence from collection through analysis to potential court presentation. Forensic analysis can answer critical questions during and after a security incident: What happened? When did it happen? How did the attacker gain access? What data was accessed or exfiltrated? What systems were affected? How long was the attacker present? The answers inform both the immediate incident response and long-term security improvements.

ISO 27001 Annex A control A.5.28 specifically addresses the collection of evidence, requiring that organizations define and apply procedures for the identification, collection, acquisition, and preservation of evidence relating to information security events. SOC 2 requirements for incident response include the ability to investigate and determine the scope of security incidents, which often requires forensic capabilities. GDPR breach notification requirements effectively mandate forensic analysis capability, as organizations must report the nature of the breach, categories of data affected, and measures taken — information that often can only be determined through forensic investigation. NIS2's incident reporting requirements similarly necessitate forensic capabilities to produce the required final reports.

Organizations do not necessarily need in-house forensic teams, but they should have a forensic readiness capability. This includes defining evidence collection procedures that preserve admissibility, maintaining forensic tools and storage capacity, establishing relationships with external forensic specialists who can be engaged quickly when needed, ensuring that systems generate and retain adequate logs for forensic analysis, and implementing protections that prevent evidence tampering. Cloud environments present unique forensic challenges, as traditional disk imaging may not be possible — organizations should understand the forensic capabilities offered by their cloud providers and the processes for obtaining evidence from cloud services. Pre-engagement with forensic service providers (retainer agreements) ensures rapid access to expertise when incidents occur.