What is live response in digital forensics?

Live response in digital forensics refers to the process of collecting evidence from a running system, which is crucial in capturing volatile data that may not be recoverable once the system is powered down. During a live response, forensic investigators can gather critical information such as active processes, memory contents, network connections, and open files. This data is valuable because it reflects the state of the system at a specific moment in time, offering potential insights into ongoing activities or attacks occurring within the environment.

The approach is particularly important for incidents where immediate response is necessary, such as in cases of suspected malware infections or when data exfiltration is believed to be in progress. Other methods such as analyzing offline data would miss this critical information that could be lost upon system shutdown. Additionally, techniques for permanently deleting files and securing long-term data storage do not fall under the scope of live response, as they pertain to data management rather than evidence collection from active systems.