Digital Forensics Investigation

Incident response focuses on containing and eradicating a threat to restore normal operations as quickly as possible. Digital forensics runs in parallel, focused on preserving and analysing evidence to establish what happened, what data was compromised, and who was responsible. In most breach scenarios both are required: incident response to stop the attack, digital forensics to produce the evidence needed for regulatory notifications, insurance claims, and legal proceedings. Precursor Security delivers both under a single engagement, preventing the evidence-destruction conflicts that arise when separate firms handle each discipline.

Digital forensics investigations in the UK typically range from £6,000 to £25,000+ depending on scope. A single-system investigation costs £6,000-£8,000. Multi-system breach investigations involving 10+ endpoints, servers, and cloud logs cost £12,000-£20,000+. Emergency on-site evidence preservation starts from £3,500 for rapid 24-48 hour response. Expert witness testimony is billed separately at £2,000-£3,000 per day. All work is quoted on a fixed-price basis after initial scoping. Precursor Security provides indicative pricing in the initial consultation call.

Yes. Insider threat investigations are a core part of our digital forensics workload. We image the suspect employee's work devices, extract USB connection history, analyse email exports and cloud sync activity, and recover deleted files to establish exactly what data was accessed, copied, or transmitted. The resulting forensic report includes timestamped evidence of each action, suitable for Employment Tribunal proceedings, High Court injunctions, or civil litigation. We can mobilise within 24 hours. In time-critical cases, for example where a departing employee will have unsupervised access to personal devices over a weekend, call us directly rather than using the contact form.

Digital forensics investigations typically range from £6,000 to £20,000+ depending on evidence volume, case complexity, and urgency. A single-endpoint investigation averages £6,000-£8,000 including forensic imaging, timeline reconstruction, and detailed reporting. Multi-system breach investigations typically cost £12,000-£20,000+. Emergency triage and evidence preservation starts from £3,500. Complex investigations involving memory forensics, malware reverse engineering, or encrypted systems typically cost £15,000-£25,000. Expert witness testimony is billed separately at £2,000-£3,000 per day. All forensic analysis is billed on a fixed-price basis after initial scoping.

While IT teams can preserve basic evidence, professional forensics requires specialised skills and tools IT departments typically lack: (1) Forensic imaging requires write-blockers and cryptographic hashing to ensure evidence admissibility in court. Copying files normally modifies timestamps and metadata, rendering evidence inadmissible. (2) IT teams often inadvertently destroy evidence by rebooting systems, running antivirus scans, or restoring from backups before imaging. (3) Timeline reconstruction requires correlating thousands of artifacts using specialised tools such as EnCase, FTK, and Volatility that IT teams typically do not have. (4) IT teams are often subjects of investigation in insider threat cases. Most organisations use IT for initial containment and external forensic specialists for evidence-grade investigation.

While uncommon with proper evidence preservation, some investigations yield limited findings due to evidence destruction, advanced anti-forensics techniques, or insufficient pre-incident logging. However, even when root cause is inconclusive, investigations provide value: we identify what systems were accessed, determine data exposure scope for GDPR reporting, eliminate false theories, and recommend forensic readiness improvements. In 90%+ of cases with proper evidence preservation, we establish root cause and attack timeline. If evidence was destroyed before we arrived, we clearly document what is unknowable versus what we determined.

Evidence integrity is protected by rigorous forensic methodology and certifications: (1) All evidence acquisition uses hardware write-blockers preventing any modification to original media. We create bit-for-bit copies and analyse those copies, never the original. (2) Every evidence item is cryptographically hashed at MD5 and SHA-256 immediately upon collection and verified before analysis to prove integrity. (3) Complete chain-of-custody documentation tracks every person who handled evidence, when, and why, meeting court admissibility standards. (4) We use forensically sound tools that are court-tested and accepted by law enforcement and judiciary. All procedures follow NIST SP 800-86 guidelines.

Yes. Our reports are produced by analysts following NIST SP 800-86 methodology with documented chain-of-custody and cryptographic hash verification. This is the standard cyber insurers require for breach claims. Insurer-commissioned investigations are a significant portion of our workload. If your insurer has specific reporting requirements, share them during scoping and we will ensure the report format meets their standards.

Digital forensics investigation is the process of collecting, preserving, analysing, and presenting digital evidence from computers, servers, mobile devices, and cloud environments to determine how a cyber incident occurred, what data was compromised, and who was responsible. The methodology ensures evidence is admissible in court.

Digital forensics is required for: cyber breach investigations, ransomware attacks, insider threat investigations, data theft incidents, regulatory compliance such as GDPR breach notification, insurance claims, and legal disputes involving electronic evidence.

Minimal disruption. We typically create forensic images of affected systems and perform all analysis offline in our lab. Critical servers can be analysed using live forensics techniques that do not require downtime.

Timelines vary based on scope. Emergency triage takes 24-48 hours. Complete forensic investigation with detailed timeline reconstruction typically takes 1-3 weeks depending on the number of systems and complexity of the attack.

Often, yes. Deleted files remain on disk in unallocated space until overwritten. We use file carving techniques to recover fragments even when file system metadata has been destroyed. However, if the drive has been securely wiped or encrypted, recovery may not be possible.

Yes. We follow strict forensic procedures including cryptographic hashing of all evidence, documented chain-of-custody, and use of forensically sound tools. Our analysts can provide expert witness testimony.

Sometimes. We can determine the attacker's tools, techniques, and procedures, and identify IP addresses, email accounts, and cryptocurrency wallets used. However, attributing cyber attacks to specific individuals or nation-states requires intelligence correlation and is often inconclusive without law enforcement involvement.