DFIR, an acronym for Digital Forensics and Incident Response, is a discipline that combines two critical aspects of information security:
1. Digital forensics focuses on uncovering and interpreting electronic data for investigative purposes. It is a science of finding, preserving, analyzing, and presenting facts about digital evidence found during a legal investigation.
2. Incident response involves managing and responding to security incidents or cyber threats to minimize damage and reduce recovery time and costs.
The synergy of these two fields forms DFIR. The primary objective of DFIR is to provide a robust and thorough approach to addressing and preventing data breaches, cyber-attacks, and other forms of digital crime. Essentially, it involves the application of forensic science principles to digital environments to identify, respond to, and mitigate potential security incidents.
Like traditional incident response, DFIR can be viewed as a life cycle that begins with preparation and ends with lessons learned from the incident. The cycle typically includes stages like identification, containment, eradication, and recovery. Each stage has specific activities that help in managing the incident and preventing further damage. The life cycle is iterative, and organizations can apply learned lessons to improve their incident response capabilities continually.