Incident Response

Incident Response & Digital Forensics

When minutes matter, Smartfind helps your team move from panic to a clear, controlled response. We detect, contain, and eradicate threats, reconstruct what happened using digital forensics, and then harden your environment so the same attack path cannot be used again. Every action is tied back to business impact, legal and regulatory expectations, and the need to regain trust quickly.

Ideal for ransomware, account takeovers, cloud compromises, and insider abuse
Designed for modern stacks: cloud-native, hybrid environments, and remote teams
Playbook-driven, with clear roles, timelines, and approvals for each step
Outputs that can be shared with customers, regulators, and internal leadership

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What we do in an incident

Smartfind operates as an extension of your security and engineering teams. From the first alert to the final lessons-learned review, we coordinate triage, drive containment, collect and analyze evidence, and guide your remediation strategy. Our focus is to bring clarity to chaos: turning raw alerts and logs into a coherent narrative, concrete actions, and measurable risk reduction.

Single command channel for all stakeholders (technical, legal, leadership)
Prioritized action list split into “do now”, “next 24 hours”, and “post-incident”
Decisions documented as they happen for later audits and investigations
Continuous alignment with your business priorities (availability, integrity, confidentiality)

Operational outcomes

Reduced time-to-detect, time-to-contain, and time-to-recover
Evidence preserved correctly, with hash values and chain-of-custody notes
Root cause confirmed (not assumed) and documented in plain language
Clear view of what systems, identities, and data were impacted or at risk
Concrete prioritization: what must be fixed immediately vs. scheduled later

Assurance outcomes

Audit-ready timelines, decisions, and supporting artifacts
Executive summaries tailored for CXOs, boards, and non-technical leaders
Customer-ready explanations that are accurate but not overly technical
Incident mapped back to existing controls and identified gaps
Updated IR playbooks and security roadmap based on real-world learning

Preparedness playbooks

The worst time to design a process is during a live breach. Smartfind helps you build and rehearse playbooks before incidents happen, so the first 60 minutes are decisive instead of confusing.

Standardized runbooks for common scenarios such as ransomware, BEC, and lost devices
Documented roles and responsibilities for security, IT, legal, HR, and leadership
Clear communication ladders and escalation thresholds mapped to severity levels

Runbooks

Containment decision trees for endpoints, servers, cloud resources, and identities
Evidence handling & volatile capture procedures for different OS and platforms
Escalation thresholds & paging rotations based on severity and impact
Checklists for “first responder” actions when a new alert is received

Access & tooling

Privileged access break-glass flows with approvals and logging
IR vault for keys, credentials, and sensitive documentation
Golden images for forensic VMs and analysis workstations
Playbook integration with SIEM, EDR, ticketing, and chat tools

Tabletops

Quarterly ransomware & BEC simulations with your real stakeholders
Cloud identity pivot drills (compromised admin account, token, or API key)
After-action reviews with clear follow-up tasks, owners, and due dates
Metrics tracking (MTTD, MTTR, detection coverage) across each exercise

Incident lifecycle

1) Detection & triage

We validate signals from SIEM/EDR, cloud native alerts, or user reports and quickly determine whether the event is a false positive, minor issue, or an active compromise.

Classify severity and potential business impact
Decide whether to trigger full IR or local containment
Assign roles and create the incident room/channel

2) Containment

The priority is to stop the bleeding without destroying critical evidence.

Isolate hosts, revoke tokens/keys, and disable compromised accounts
Block known C2 infrastructure, malicious domains, and IP ranges
Implement short-term policy changes (e.g., stricter MFA, access limitations)

3) Forensics

We reconstruct what actually happened instead of guessing, using host, cloud, and network evidence.

Identify initial access vector, lateral movement, and persistence methods
Determine scope: systems, identities, and data potentially affected
Correlate timelines across multiple log sources for a single view

4) Eradication

Once we understand the attack path, we remove the attacker and close the gaps they used.

Remove malware and backdoors, disable persistence mechanisms
Reset or rotate credentials, keys, and tokens
Fix misconfigurations and vulnerabilities exploited in the attack

5) Recovery

Restore operations in a controlled way, ensuring systems are clean and monitored.

Rebuild and reimage from known-good sources
Restore data and validate integrity against backups or replicas
Increase monitoring around previously compromised components

6) Lessons & metrics

We close each incident with learning, not just relief.

Post-incident review (PIR) and root cause analysis (RCA)
Control gaps and process issues captured in a remediation backlog
Metrics such as MTTD, MTTR, and dwell time updated and tracked

Digital forensics

Collection & acquisition

Host images, memory captures, and volatile artefacts from Windows, Linux, and macOS
Cloud logs from services like AWS CloudTrail, Azure Activity Logs, and GCP Audit Logs
Network telemetry, WAF/CDN logs, VPN records, DNS, and proxy data
Collection workflows that preserve integrity and maintain chain-of-custody

Analysis & timeline

Reconstruct attacker activity: initial access, privilege escalation, lateral movement
Identify persistence mechanisms, C2 channels, and exfiltration paths
Determine what data is at risk and support legal/regulatory decision-making
Produce a clear narrative that can be shared with leadership and external parties

Stakeholder communications

Internal

Smartfind helps you keep the right people informed without overwhelming everyone with noise.

Dedicated incident channel or bridge with clear decision-makers
Regular situation reports for leadership: what we know, what we don’t, next steps
Legal, privacy, HR, and IT aligned on facts and messaging
Action tracking so nothing critical slips during high-stress moments

External

Externally, the goal is to be transparent, accurate, and timely without over- or under-stating the situation.

Customer notifications aligned with contractual and regulatory expectations
Support for regulator notifications and documentation of impact
Guidance for law enforcement engagement where appropriate
Templates and input for PR and communications teams, to maintain trust

Hardening after the incident

Identity & access

MFA everywhere, with FIDO2 or strong phishing-resistant options where possible
Conditional access policies, just-in-time admin, and privileged access workstations
Key rotation strategy for API keys, certificates, and cloud credentials
Account lifecycle hygiene: joiner/mover/leaver process tightened and monitored

Detection & response

Close monitoring coverage gaps on endpoints, servers, and critical SaaS platforms
High-signal detection rules focused on identity abuse, lateral movement, and exfiltration
Tiered triage playbooks and guidelines to reduce alert fatigue
Regular tabletop drills and purple-team style exercises to validate readiness

Deliverables

Executive summary & customer/regulator narrative in clear, non-technical language
Technical timeline and root cause analysis with supporting evidence references
Evidence package (hashes, images, logs) with documented chain-of-custody
Remediation tracker (CSV/Jira or your system) with owners and due dates
Retest/validation report confirming that identified issues have been addressed
Updated playbooks and recommended roadmap for long-term improvements

Sample status update

Topic	Summary
Containment	Impacted hosts isolated; compromised accounts disabled; C2 endpoints blocked
Forensics	Memory and disk images acquired; initial access vector identified
Remediation	Key rotation underway; patches applied; additional detections deployed
Risks	Two legacy systems pending isolation; increased monitoring for lateral movement

Typical timeline

Phase	Duration	Activities
Hot start	0–24 hrs	Triage, acknowledge incident, contain active threats, acquire critical evidence, establish comms.
Forensics	2–7 days	Host/cloud analysis, timeline reconstruction, scope assessment, data-at-risk evaluation.
Remediation	3–10 days	Key and credential rotation, patching, configuration changes, re-imaging and rebuilding.
Retest & PIR	2–5 days	Validation scans/tests, post-incident review, RCA, and control updates.

Pricing / Engagement model

Hotline Retainer

24×7 on-call with defined SLAs for response
Quarterly tabletop exercises and scenario testing
Hours banked for hot starts and initial triage
Best for teams that want guaranteed, fast access to IR experts

Per-Incident

Fixed or range-based fees for a defined scope
Dedicated incident response cell for the duration
Optional retest and follow-up advisory add-ons
Best for organizations with occasional, but high-impact needs

Hybrid

Smaller retainer plus reduced per-incident fees
Priority access to senior responders and forensics experts
Annual roadmap reviews to align IR with broader security strategy
Best for growing teams that want ongoing partnership, not just one-off help

FAQs

Will this disrupt business operations?

Our goal is to protect your environment while keeping the business running wherever possible. We stage changes, throttle high-impact actions, and coordinate maintenance windows with system owners, SOC/NOC teams, and leadership. Where downtime is unavoidable, we help you plan it and communicate clearly.

Can you coordinate with legal & privacy?

Yes. Incident handling is not just technical; Smartfind works closely with your legal, privacy, HR, and communications teams. We align the technical findings with notification obligations, regulatory reporting timelines, and contractual commitments to customers and partners.

Do you support cloud-native incidents?

Absolutely. Many modern incidents are cloud-centric. We handle IAM and key misuse, workload compromises, exposed APIs, and SaaS account takeovers across AWS, Azure, GCP, and major SaaS platforms, using cloud-native forensics and logging.

What about ransomware?

Ransomware is one of the most stressful incident types. Smartfind focuses on rapid containment, encryption scope assessment, backup and restoration strategy, and negotiation guidance (if required, via your legal/insurance channels). Our objective is to restore operations safely and reduce the chance of repeat extortion.

Need help right now?

Email info@smartfind.systems or reach out via our contact form. Our team will connect with you as soon as possible.