Falling victim to a cyberattack is now an inevitability rather than a possibility. Organizations can no longer rely solely on prevention, they must be ready to respond quickly and effectively when breaches occur. As attack patterns evolve and breaches become more frequent, the focus is moving from “if” an organization will be attacked to “when”, and how they can recover.
The stakes are high. In the US alone, the average cost of a cyberattack increased 9% between 2024 and 2025, reaching $10.22 million per incident. But the cost is not only financial. The attack on Jaguar Land Rover showed how operational downtime for one business can cause a ripple effect – affecting thousands of companies across supply chains. Given the potential impact on long-term business relationships – and the bottom line – a new approach is needed that focuses on investigating and responding to ongoing attacks.
Despite years of investment into cybersecurity and growing awareness of the risks, organizations still face big hurdles when it comes to investigation and response. Lapses and delays in regulatory frameworks like CIRCIA and CISA don’t remove the need for effective investigation capabilities.
While regulations set a minimum standard for reporting and information sharing, organizations cannot rely solely on compliance to protect themselves. Intelligence gathering is valuable for internal and external use. Relying on others to do the “dirty work” and share their intelligence won’t be enough to ensure investigations are carried out quickly in the wake of an attack.
Unfortunately for many organizations, investigations remain slow, complex and resource intensive. Critical data about attacks often falls into “black holes” without a central hub capturing the breadcrumbs, this can make it challenging to put the pieces together. On top of this, many organizations don’t have access to the highly skilled investigators they need to get analysis underway due to a persistent shortage of talent.
Forensic Investigation to Bring Order to the Chaos
Forensic investigation has emerged as the answer to this chaos, involving the collection and analysis of digital evidence after a cyber incident. Much like an episode of CSI, digital forensics trace an attacker’s path and processes.
In this cyber version, login attempts, privilege escalations and suspicious command entries are gathered to build a picture of what happened. By having this evidence at hand when an attack is detected, an investigator’s work becomes a lot easier, putting the pieces together on how attackers gained initial entry, what they did to move across networks and where they delivered their final strike.
This intelligence-gathering goes beyond just immediate remediation: it also strengthens an organization’s ability to share insights internally and externally. Internally, even lesser-skilled investigators will now have the evidence to produce executive briefing documents quickly, updating on operational interruptions and affected systems. Outside the organization, making use of this forensic evidence plays a crucial role in intelligence-sharing networks.
Information about attack patterns, tactics and vulnerabilities can be shared with industry and supply chain peers, allowing others to take proactive measures. This raises the cybersecurity posture of all participants, turning even the newest attack methods from live bullets into harmless blanks.
Prioritizing forensic investigation lets organizations mitigate the operational, financial and reputational impact of attacks. It means protecting stakeholders and maintaining confidence in their brand, even when disruption does occur. Instead of staying silent while scrambling to assess the damage, businesses can now communicate clearly, confirming what happened and outlining recovery steps.
Keeping quiet while rushing to figure out what is going on can create a negative public perception. By contrast, confirming an attack has happened and what steps are being taken to mitigate and recover will often result in a more positive reaction. As well as this, a proactive investigative approach capability creates a feedback loop; incidents become an opportunity to learn, improve and bolster defences against future threats.
Putting Investigation at the Frontline
In this evolving landscape, the frontline of cybersecurity is far-reaching. It is no longer confined to prevention, it now involves the response and investigation phase, where speed and accuracy are key and the difference between contained incidents and catastrophic breaches. Organizations that recognize this shift and invest in the right tools and processes can turn potential crises into managed risks.
Attacks are inevitable, but chaos is optional. By turning black holes of data into black boxes of insight, organizations can respond decisively, protect stakeholders and safeguard operations.