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Your Expert on Standby: A Practical Incident Response Plan for Small Law Firms

Your incident response plan looks great on paper, but who actually executes it? When a cyber incident strikes, small law firms without dedicated IT staff are paralyzed. Partners and administrative staff are forced into technical roles they are untrained for, leading to critical delays, mishandled evidence, and a real risk of violating client data confidentiality.

This playbook outlines a budget-focused strategy to bridge your expertise gap. It details how to establish a low-cost retainer with a local cybersecurity consultant who acts as your on-demand expert. When an incident occurs, they become your virtual team lead, guiding your existing staff through a pre-defined protocol to collect critical evidence using free, industry-standard tools. You get expert guidance precisely when you need it, without the cost of a full-time cybersecurity hire.

Expected Outcomes

  • Eliminate confusion by having clearly defined incident response roles.
  • Gain access to on-demand cybersecurity expertise at a predictable, low cost.
  • Ensure digital evidence is properly preserved to meet legal and ethical standards.
  • Reduce the risk of costly mistakes made by untrained personnel during a crisis.
  • Demonstrate due diligence in protecting sensitive client information.

Core Tools in This Stack

Graylog (Open Source)

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Graylog Open Source is a powerful, free, and open centralized log management platform for collecting, indexing, and analyzing any machine data from any source.

Key Features
  • Centralized Log Aggregation
  • Powerful Search and Query Language
  • Customizable Dashboards and Visualizations
  • Alerting and Notification System
  • Content Packs for quick setup
  • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
  • Extensible through plugins and APIs
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro, Small, Medium, Large

Industries: Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services, Retail & E-commerce, Education & Non-Profit, Health & Wellness, Other

Pricing

Model: Open Source, Freemium

Tier: Free

Ease of Use

Medium

FTK Imager

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A free data preview and imaging tool that allows users to quickly assess electronic evidence and create forensically sound copies (images) of computer data without altering the original source. It supports various file systems and can create perfect copies with hash reports for verification.

Key Features
  • Create forensic images (dd, E01, AD1) of local hard drives, CDs/DVDs, and USB devices.
  • Preview files and folders on local hard drives and network drives without making changes.
  • Mount a forensic image for read-only viewing of its contents in Windows Explorer.
  • Capture live system memory (RAM) and the system pagefile.
  • View and recover passwords from web browsers, and other Windows system files.
  • Generate MD5 and SHA1 hash reports for files to verify data integrity.
Ideal For

Company Size: Medium, Large

Industries: Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services, Education & Non-Profit

Pricing

Model: Free

Tier: Free

Ease of Use

Medium

VeraCrypt

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VeraCrypt is a free, open-source disk encryption software for on-the-fly encryption (OTFE). It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file, encrypt a partition, or the entire storage device with pre-boot authentication, and provides plausible deniability through hidden volumes.

Key Features
  • Creates virtual encrypted disks within files
  • Encrypts entire partitions or storage devices
  • System partition encryption with pre-boot authentication
  • Provides plausible deniability via hidden volumes and hidden OS
  • Supports various encryption algorithms (AES, Serpent, Twofish) and hashing algorithms
  • Cross-platform support for Windows, macOS, and Linux
  • Protects against brute-force attacks with custom iterations (PIM)
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro

Industries: Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services, Creative & Media, Education & Non-Profit, Health & Wellness, Other

Pricing

Model: Free, Open Source

Tier: Free

Ease of Use

Moderate

The Workflow

graph TD subgraph "On-Call Consultant Retainer" direction LR N0["Graylog (Open Source)"] N1["FTK Imager"] N2["VeraCrypt"] N0 -- "Identifies target for imaging" --> N1 N1 -- "Secures forensic image" --> N2 end classDef blue fill:#3498db,stroke:#2980b9,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff; classDef green fill:#2ecc71,stroke:#27ae60,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff; classDef orange fill:#f39c12,stroke:#d35400,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff; class N0 blue; class N1 blue; class N2 blue;

Integration Logic

  • Consultant-Guided Evidence Protocol

    This is a human-driven workflow, not an automated API integration. An analyst first identifies a potential security incident and a target endpoint (e.g., IP address, hostname) by analyzing logs within Graylog. Based on this intelligence, the analyst uses FTK Imager to create a bit-for-bit forensic image of the target system's storage media or memory. Finally, to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the collected evidence during storage or transit, the resulting image file(s) are placed into a strongly encrypted container created with VeraCrypt. The 'integration' is the documented procedure that links the output of one tool to the input of the next.

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