DFIR
Digital Forensics & Incident Response
The discipline of investigating, containing, and remediating cyber incidents—combining investigative rigour with operational speed.
What is DFIR?
DFIR integrates two complementary capabilities:
Evidence preservation & chain of custody
Real-time threat containment
Timeline reconstruction
Rapid triage & escalation
Artifact & malware analysis
Eradication & recovery
Attribution & root cause
Stakeholder coordination
Together, they enable organisations to detect intrusions, understand scope, eliminate threats, and prevent recurrence.
Why DFIR Matters
Modern adversaries move fast. The data speaks for itself:
Median time to exfiltration
2 days (45% within 24 hours)
Ransomware dwell time
5 days
Average breach cost
$4.88M
Breaches involving cloud data
82%
Repeat incidents (incomplete remediation)
67%
Sources: IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2024, Mandiant M-Trends 2024, Unit 42 IR Report 2024
Without effective DFIR, organisations face extended dwell times, incomplete remediation, regulatory penalties, and catastrophic business disruption.
The Threat Landscape
What we're up against:
Nation-state APTs — Salt Typhoon, Volt Typhoon conducting multi-year intrusions using LOTL techniques
RaaS Operations — LockBit, BlackCat, Qilin, RansomHub with double/triple extortion (87% of attacks)
Supply Chain Attacks — Snowflake breach (165+ customers), credential theft at scale
Identity Compromise — Stolen credentials remain top attack vector (292 days to detect)
AI-Enhanced Threats — GenAI-powered phishing, deepfakes, automated reconnaissance
DFIR Capabilities
Detection & Hunting
Proactive threat hunting, behavioural analytics, XDR correlation, and anomaly detection across hybrid environments.
Investigation & Forensics
Timeline reconstruction, memory forensics, cloud audit analysis, malware reverse engineering, and artifact examination.
Containment & Eradication
Rapid isolation, lateral movement prevention, persistence removal, and validated clean-state recovery.
Intelligence & Prevention
IOC extraction, TTP mapping to MITRE ATT&CK, detection engineering, and lessons learned integration.
Quantified Impact
Investments in DFIR capabilities deliver measurable returns:
AI/automation in prevention
$2.2M cost reduction
Tested IR plan + dedicated team
$248K savings
Law enforcement engagement
~$1M savings, 63% avoid ransom
XDR implementation
29 days faster containment
Internal detection capability
$1M savings vs external notification
Core Tooling
Endpoint Forensics
Velociraptor, KAPE, CyLR
Memory Analysis
Volatility, MemProcFS
Log Analysis
Chainsaw, Hayabusa, SIEM/XDR
Network Forensics
Zeek, Wireshark, full PCAP
Cloud Forensics
Native audit logs, CIEM tools
Automation
SOAR platforms, custom playbooks
Getting Started
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What you'll find here:
Investigation playbooks for common incident types
KQL and detection queries for threat hunting
Forensic artifact analysis guides
Response procedures and checklists
Tool configurations and automation scripts
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