Analysis approaches

During incident handling, each case can be considered as a different scenario. Therefore, different approaches can take place during the first response, based on the circumstances of the individual case. There are two general approaches that can be used to deal with a security incident:

• Live analysis: This is usually performed when the analyst has a live system in hand. Shutting the system down is one of the "don'ts" that the responder shouldn't do. Performing some primary analysis of the live system can provide valuable information that can guide the analyst in the future investigation. Also, in some situations, a quick analysis of the incident is highly required when there is no time to go through the normal steps of the analysis.
• Postmortem analysis: This is the normal steps of the process, where the responder acquires all the available data from the incident scene, and then conducts postmortem analysis on the evidence.

Mainly, the hybrid approach is considered the best, where the responder conducts the live analysis on the powered on and accessible systems, records their findings, and acquires all the data, including the live ones, for postmortem analysis. Combining both results from live and postmortem analysis can clearly explain the status of the system under investigation. Performing the acquisition first in such a case is the best practice as the evidence will be acquired before any analysis traces are in the system.