How do you preserve network evidence for incident response?

In my experience, documentation is very crucial when trying to preserve network evidence for incident response. Documentation should be both physical and logical, like evidence in the network and changes you have observed in the server room. Take pictures or screenshot to reinforce your report, if incase used for forensic analysis or legal purposes.

Preserving network evidence is crucial for effective incident response, as it allows you to analyze the details of a cybersecurity incident, identify its scope, and take appropriate actions to mitigate and recover from it. Preserving network evidence requires a combination of technical skills, careful documentation, and adherence to best practices. Remember that evidence preservation is a critical part of incident response, and mishandling it could compromise the integrity of the investigation and any potential legal actions.

Preserving network evidence for incident response is an unequivocal necessity, drawn from my humble work experiences. It's compulsory because it upholds the three core tenets of effective cybersecurity: traceability, integrity, and non-repudiation. Ensuring traceability means maintaining a documented record of all network activities linked to the incident, providing essential context. Integrity is preserved by safeguarding evidence against tampering or alterations, maintaining its reliability. Non-repudiation is crucial for holding accountable those involved, as properly preserved evidence prevents denial of actions. In essence, compliance with these principles is indispensable for a robust incident response strategy.

Scope identification and documentation are indeed early steps towards remediating a cyber security incident. Servers may be locked up, storage arrays inaccessible and network devices unusable. One way is to start at the top and with your way down. Core network devices and servers identified that have been compromised. Ones that have not can be used as jump points on your network to identify the status of other devices. Then onto end devices. Workstations and peripherals.

In my experience you need to have verified and accurate information in regards to the network endpoints. That information needs to be documented and have a central location that needed subject matter experts can review.

Preserving network evidence for incident response involves securely capturing digital artifacts like logs, traffic data, and system snapshots. Using forensically sound methods, such as hashing and write-blockers, maintains evidence integrity. This aids investigators in analyzing evidence accurately, tracing attack vectors, and understanding the incident's nature for effective response and mitigation.

Isolating affected devices from the network is a crucial step in responding to a cybersecurity incident. It helps to prevent further damage, propagation, or tampering of network evidence. Here are some key points to keep in mind: Act quickly and carefully to minimize the damage caused by the attack. Use physical or logical methods to isolate the devices. Preserve the affected devices for forensic analysis. Document all actions taken to isolate the devices. By following these tips, organizations can be better prepared to respond to a cyberattack and protect their assets.

In the beginning this may have to happen very quickly by on site staff. Something to note that unplugging network cables and power cables can cause more issues down the road with data recovery. Better is to come up with at least an emergency response protocol. Example: What could be affected (servers, network devices, peripherals, storage, workstations) What is the emergency cutoff trigger for each class of device? How would that cutoff be performed? Who would perform it? Attacks take many forms but maybe also do a little research on your industry and identify the most common attacks and focus on ways to prevent/remediate that particular class of attack.

Collecting volatile data during a network incident is crucial for preserving and analyzing evidence that could help in investigating the incident and identifying its root cause. The best place to start is Live Forensics Tools. Live forensics tools are designed to capture volatile data without altering the system state. This list of items is a good starting point: 1. Memory Capture 2. Network Traffic Capture 3. Process Analysis 4. Open File Analysis 5. Registry Snapshot 6. System Logs 7. Screenshots and System State 8. Connected Devices 9. Time Synchronization Remember to document everything. It’s extremely important to follow proper forensic procedures to ensure that the evidence remains untainted and admissible in a legal context.

This requires special skills, tools and techniques. While this is a valuable set of data (anything during or after an attack), this will probably be an afterthought and therefore most of it lost if devices are powered down during an incident. However, if planning a strategy beforehand, it is wise to at least have some idea of how to recover some of this data yourself. I think most companies that end up employing either a response vendor, law enforcement or both will get access to this expertise during response anyways though.

This is a biggie in the aftermath. As stated earlier, most malware affects particular device configurations but may still try to attack others. What we had run into is an attack on windows systems, but only newer ones. The malware did a decent job covering its tracks by deleting pretty much any trace of it running so we were just left with locked systems. But, some older computers caused some of the initialization scripts to fail, therefore keeping a log of the script identifiers, URLs where it was downloading additional scripts (it was mostly Power Shell scripts) and where it was going to connect and upload data to. Just be aware that unaffected devices could be a more valuable insight into what happened than affected ones.

This is always useful. But this is quite dependent on how you monitor your networks and systems. In addition having offline backups from within a reasonable time frame.

Legal compliance In the context of collecting and examining network data, it is important to acknowledge that under some circumstances, the acquisition of a warrant may be requisite, particularly when the data contains user conversations. Seeking guidance from legal professionals can provide clarity on the circumstances in which a warrant is required. Ensuring the integrity and reliability of a secure and comprehensive chain of custody is equally vital. This process entails meticulous monitoring of every individual who was granted access to the evidence, together with a record of the duration of their access and any modifications made.