RFC 3227 (rfc3227) - Page 1 of 10
Guidelines for Evidence Collection and Archiving
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group D. Brezinski
Request for Comments: 3227 In-Q-Tel
BCP: 55 T. Killalea
Category: Best Current Practice neart.org
February 2002
Guidelines for Evidence Collection and Archiving
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
A "security incident" as defined in the "Internet Security Glossary",
RFC 2828, is a security-relevant system event in which the system's
security policy is disobeyed or otherwise breached. The purpose of
this document is to provide System Administrators with guidelines on
the collection and archiving of evidence relevant to such a security
incident.
If evidence collection is done correctly, it is much more useful in
apprehending the attacker, and stands a much greater chance of being
admissible in the event of a prosecution.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction.................................................... 2
1.1 Conventions Used in this Document........................... 2
2 Guiding Principles during Evidence Collection................... 3
2.1 Order of Volatility......................................... 4
2.2 Things to avoid............................................. 4
2.3 Privacy Considerations...................................... 5
2.4 Legal Considerations........................................ 5
3 The Collection Procedure........................................ 6
3.1 Transparency................................................ 6
3.2 Collection Steps............................................ 6
4 The Archiving Procedure......................................... 7
4.1 Chain of Custody............................................ 7
4.2 The Archive................................................. 7
5 Tools you'll need............................................... 7
Brezinski & Killalea Best Current Practice