Cybersecurity as Digital Detective Work: DFIR and Its 3 Key Components

Cybersecurity as Digital Detective Work: DFIR and Its 3 Key Components

Thanks to CSI and the many other crime-solving shows that have grasped our collective imagination for decades, we're all at least somewhat familiar with the field of forensics and its unique appeal. At some point, anyone who's watched these series has probably envisioned themselves in the detective's shoes, piecing together the puzzle of a crime scene based on clues others might overlook — and bringing bad guys to justice at the end.

Cybersecurity lends itself particularly well to this analogy. It takes an expert eye and constant vigilance to stay a step ahead of the bad actors of the digital world. And after all, there aren't many other areas in the modern tech landscape where the matter at hand is actual crime.

Digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) brings detective-like skills and processes to the forefront of cybersecurity practice. But what does DFIR entail, and how does it fit into your organization's big-picture incident detection and response (IDR) approach? Let's take a closer look.

What is DFIR — and are you already doing it?

Security expert Scott J. Roberts defines DFIR as "a multidisciplinary profession that focuses on identifying, investigating, and remediating computer-network exploitation." If you hear that definition and think, "Hey, we're already doing that," that may because, in some sense, you already are.

Perhaps the best way to think of DFIR is not as a specific type of tech or category of tools, but rather as a methodology and a set of practices. Broadly speaking, it's a field within the larger landscape of cybersecurity, and it can be part of your team's incident response approach in the context of the ..

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