{"id":6889,"date":"2025-11-04T12:47:58","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T07:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitigata.com\/blog\/?p=6889"},"modified":"2025-12-04T18:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T12:50:09","slug":"digital-forensics-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mitigata.com\/blog\/digital-forensics-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Forensics Steps to Handle Cyber Breaches"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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What if your company was breached 197 days ago<\/b>, and you are still clueless <\/b>about it?<\/p>

As per research, it takes an average of 197 days to identify a cyber intrusion<\/b> and 64 days to contain it<\/b>, meaning that an attacker has been in your systems for almost 10 months. The damage can be massive from stealing sensitive information, planting backdoors, and installing malware.<\/p>

The frequency of cyberattacks is increasing year after year. Currently, there is one cyberattack every 39 seconds<\/b>. Threat actors have begun using AI-driven ransomware, making it difficult to predict what will happen by 2026. It’s not a surprise anymore that the average cost of a data breach has gone up to $4.88 million<\/b>.<\/p>

Now the real question is how prepared you are to address these attacks when they happen.<\/p>

In this blog, you will learn about the different phases of cyber forensics and how to best prepare your organisation for a digital forensic investigation.<\/p>

Why Businesses Choose Mitigata for DFIR Services?<\/b><\/p>

With 800+ happy clients and experience across 25+ industries, we offer Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) services to help you recover fast and build long-term cyber resilience.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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One Breach Can Cripple You. \nOne Team Can Save You.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMitigata delivers an integrated DFIR service covering log forensics, network analysis, and endpoint restoration.<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTalk to Our Expert Today!<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Here\u2019s what we offer:<\/p>

24\/7 Incident Response:<\/b> We stay available around the clock to ensure your operations keep running.<\/p>

Integrated Response Team:<\/b> Cyber forensics experts, legal consultants, and crisis managers collaborate to lead technical and executive responses.<\/p>

Insurance-Ready Forensics:<\/b> We deliver reports and evidence that insurers and regulators can rely on.<\/p>

Precision in Each Phase:<\/b> From evidence preservation to thorough forensic analysis, threat actor profiling, and breach impact assessment, we cover every important aspect.<\/p>

What really happens inside a Security Operations Center<\/b><\/a>? The answer might surprise you!<\/p><\/blockquote>

What Is Digital Forensics and Incident Response?<\/b><\/p>

Digital forensics is the practice of capturing, preserving, and analysing digital evidence so you can reconstruct events and prove what happened. Incident response is the operational side of it. The process outlines the actions you take to identify, contain, remove and recover from a breach.<\/p>

In short, DFIR acts as your company’s Sherlock Holmes for anything related to a cybercrime that occurs.<\/p>

Learn the real difference between digital forensics and incident response<\/i><\/b><\/a> and why your organization needs both for complete cyber resilience.<\/p><\/blockquote>

The following is a ransomware example that shows how DFIR works:<\/p>

The incident response team promptly isolates the impacted systems to prevent further encryption.<\/p>

Meanwhile, digital forensic experts create forensic photos of corrupted systems before any cleanup to preserve evidence. They also examine memory dumps to figure out what variant of ransomware compromised your systems and what the ransomware did with the machines for forensic purposes.<\/p>

According to the log analysis, it came out that the attacker got access three weeks ago using phished employee credentials.<\/p>

In addition, the forensic assessment revealed that the attacker spent those weeks mapping the network, stealing sensitive data, and preparing for the ransomware deployment.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The DFIR Partner You Call \nWhen Minutes Matter<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOur experts respond instantly, isolate compromised systems, and perform deep forensic analysis to ensure a verified and clean recovery.<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTalk to Our Expert Today!<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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What are the steps in the digital forensic process?<\/b><\/h3>

Here\u2019s a practical breakdown of the digital forensics investigation process, explained step-by-step:<\/p>

Preparation: Build Your Defence Before the Attack<\/b>
The first step of a cyber forensic investigation process is preparation, and the best time to prepare for an incident is before it happens.You should have forensic tools ready, contact information of your DFIR team, legal counsel, and insurance providers documented, and baseline security configurations in place.<\/p>

Detection & Triage<\/b>
The next step of the digital investigation process is the detection of a suspicious activity. This involves determining whether a security event is actually an incident requiring response.<\/p>

Detection often starts with an alert when your Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) system flags suspicious behaviour, or a user reports that files have suddenly become encrypted. The key is separating false positives from real threats quickly.<\/p>

Containment<\/b>
Once an incident has been identified, containment minimises more damage. This can occur in both short- and long-term periods. Short-term containment may involve unplugging infected systems from the network or disabling hacked accounts.<\/p>

Long-term containment entails deploying temporary fixes such as firewall rules or segmentation to halt the spread while keeping corporate activities running.<\/p>

Evidence Collection<\/b>
The fourth step in the digital forensic process is where forensic experts capture system images, memory dumps, log files, and network data to help reconstruct what happened.<\/p>

Every action must be logged and timestamped. The \u201cchain of custody\u201d ensures that the evidence can stand up in court or during insurance claims.<\/p>

What\u2019s your cyber risk worth? See how cyber risk is quantified<\/b><\/a> and managed.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Forensic Analysis<\/b>
The next cyber forensics step is where the investigation truly begins. Analysts dig into the captured evidence to determine:<\/p>