1. Detect the data breach
All tips for investigating a data breach begin with incident detection. This step is aimed at determining the fact that a data breach has occured. We can confirm this by inspecting the signs of a data breach. Such as:
Web server logs indicating a search for vulnerabilities in an organization’s network.
Discovery of a vulnerability that affects the organization’s network.
An announcement by a hacker group that they intend to attack the organization.
Buffer overflow attempts against a database server.
Multiple failed login attempts from an unfamiliar remote system.
Bounced emails with suspicious content.

2. Take urgent incident response actions
The first thing among data breach investigation tips is to record the date and time of detection as well as all information known about the incident at the moment.
Then, the person who discovered a breach must immediately report to those responsible within the organization. Access to breached information should also be restricted to stop the further spread of leaked data.

3. Gather evidence
act quickly and gather as much information about the data breach as we can. The better our understanding of the situation, the better our chances of minimizing the consequences.

4. Analyze the data breach
Once gathered as much information about the incident as we can, we need to analyze it. This step is aimed at determining the circumstances of the incident.
Having carefully analyzed information on the data breach, we can draw some conclusions about the source of the breach to effectively stop it.

5. Take containment, eradication, and recovery measures
1) Containment measures
The goal of these measures is not only to isolate compromised computers and servers but to prevent the destruction of evidence that can help investigate the incident.
Conduct a comprehensive data breach containment operation and preserve all evidence, being careful you don’t destroy it. For example, if a data breach is caused by malware, it may not create files on disk but may place itself entirely in RAM because it’s harder to detect this way. Therefore, it’s unacceptable to power off the computer, as all the information contained in RAM will be lost.
Also, monitor the attacker’s activities and determine whether any data is leaking during the investigation.

2) Eradication measures
Next, it’s important to eliminate all causes that led to the data breach. For example, if the breach occurred as a result of an insider threat, security specialists should disable all accounts that leaked information. If the threat was external, such as malware, it may be necessary to clean up the affected system and patch exploited vulnerabilities.

3) Recovery measures
After a successful eradication step, it’s necessary for the organization to return to normal operations. This includes putting the affected systems back into a fully operational state, installing patches, changing passwords, etc.
Security specialists should carefully monitor the network, recovered computers, and servers to ensure that the threat has been fully removed.

6. Notify related parties
Notify all affected organizations and individuals as well as law enforcement. Timely notification is a very important data breach investigation procedure as it will enable individuals to take measures to protect lost data, such as changing passwords, or at least to be careful in case scammers take advantage of the data breach.

7. Conduct post-incident activities
Once taken basic actions to counter the data breach, it’s time to analyze the incident and its consequences and take steps to prevent similar issues in the future. Every data breach should be thoroughly audited afterwards.
An audit may include:
1) Reviewing the organization’s cybersecurity systems
2) Analyzing causes of the data breach
3) Creating a plan to prevent similar incidents in the future
4) Reviewing policies and procedures to reflect lessons learned from the data breach
5) Improving cybersecurity awareness among employees

By thoroughly implementing these steps, we can get a better understanding of the data breach that occured, discover its true causes, and determine the best pathway for mitigating its consequences