Book Image

Digital Forensics and Incident Response - Third Edition

By : Gerard Johansen
5 (1)
Book Image

Digital Forensics and Incident Response - Third Edition

5 (1)
By: Gerard Johansen

Overview of this book

An understanding of how digital forensics integrates with the overall response to cybersecurity incidents is key to securing your organization’s infrastructure from attacks. This updated third edition will help you perform cutting-edge digital forensic activities and incident response with a new focus on responding to ransomware attacks. After covering the fundamentals of incident response that are critical to any information security team, you’ll explore incident response frameworks. From understanding their importance to creating a swift and effective response to security incidents, the book will guide you using examples. Later, you’ll cover digital forensic techniques, from acquiring evidence and examining volatile memory through to hard drive examination and network-based evidence. You’ll be able to apply these techniques to the current threat of ransomware. As you progress, you’ll discover the role that threat intelligence plays in the incident response process. You’ll also learn how to prepare an incident response report that documents the findings of your analysis. Finally, in addition to various incident response activities, the book will address malware analysis and demonstrate how you can proactively use your digital forensic skills in threat hunting. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to investigate and report unwanted security breaches and incidents in your organization.
Table of Contents (28 chapters)
1
Part 1: Foundations of Incident Response and Digital Forensics
6
Part 2: Evidence Acquisition
11
Part 3: Evidence Analysis
17
Part 4: Ransomware Incident Response
20
Part 5: Threat Intelligence and Hunting
Appendix

Windows Logs

The most prevalent endpoint operating system that responders will have to examine related to an incident is by far the Windows OS. Due to the overwhelming market share that Microsoft has, most enterprise endpoints will be Microsoft desktop/laptop, server, or virtual systems. As a result, responders must have a solid understanding of how to leverage the Windows Event and System Monitor logs for incident analysis.

Windows Event Logs

Windows event logs provide extensive data on the actions of the operating systems, connections from other systems, and credential use, along with the use of PowerShell.

Adversarial tactics from initial compromise using malware or other exploits, credential accessing, and elevation and lateral movement using the Windows operating system’s internal tools are often captured via Windows event logs.

The specific logs that are captured during the operating system’s activities are largely dependent on how the organization has...