Summary

Evidence that is pertinent to incident responders is not just located on the hard drive of a compromised host. There is a wealth of information available from network devices spread throughout the environment. With proper preparation, a CSIRT may be able to leverage the evidence provided by these devices through solutions such as a SIEM. CSIRT personnel also have the ability to capture the network traffic for later analysis through a variety of methods and tools. Behind all of these techniques, though, are the legal and policy implications that CSIRT personnel and the organization at large needs to navigate. By preparing for the legal and technical challenges of network evidence collection, CSIRT members can leverage this evidence and move closer to the goal of determining the root cause of an incident and bringing the organization back up to operations.

This chapter discussed several sources of evidence available to incident response analysts. Logs from network devices, whether they...