When preparing reports, there are several sources of data that are included within the documentation, whether the incident is small, requiring only a single entry into a ticketing system, all the way to a complex data breach that requires extensive incident and forensic reporting. Some sources include the following:
- Personal observations: Users may have some information that is pertinent to the case. For example, they might have clicked on a file in an email that appeared to come from a legitimate address. Other times, analysts may observe behavior in a system and make a note of it.
- Applications: Some applications produce log files or other data that it may be necessary to include in a report.
- Network/host devices: A great deal of this book deals with acquiring and analyzing evidence from a host of systems in an enterprise environment. Many of these systems also allow outputting reports that can be included with the overall incident or forensic reporting.
- Forensic tools: Forensic tools often have automated reporting functions. This can be as simple as an overview of some of the actions, as was addressed in the previous chapters, or the actual outputs, such as file hashes, that can be included within a forensic report.
Wherever the material comes from, a good rule to follow is to capture and include as much as possible in the report. It is better to have more information than less.