Incident Response & Forensics: Log Analysis, Timeline Creation, and Root Cause Analysis

When a security incident happens, organizations need to respond quickly and effectively. Incident response and forensics help security teams detect, analyze, and recover from cyber threats. This process includes analyzing logs, creating a timeline of events, and finding the root cause of the attack.

Logs are records of events happening in a system, network, or application. These logs come from different sources like:

FirewallsEndpoint Detection and Response (EDR) toolsServersSIEM (Security Information and Event Management) systemsCollect Logs — Gather logs from various sources (firewalls, Windows event logs, Linux syslogs, etc.).Filter Relevant Logs — Focus on logs that may contain indicators of compromise (IoCs), such as failed login attempts, unusual file access, or unexpected outbound traffic.Analyze Patterns — Look for patterns of suspicious activity, such as multiple failed login attempts from different locations.Correlate with Threat Intelligence — Cross-check suspicious logs with known indicators from threat intelligence feeds.