A cybersecurity analyst is responding to a security breach where attackers compromised a public-facing web application. Following a standard incident response process, which of the following is the most critical initial step to take during the detection and analysis phase to gather evidence of the attacker's activity?
Immediately reviewing all account integrity for signs of compromise
Performing an exhaustive code review on the current web applications
Examining user behavior patterns for anomalies in application usage
According to standard incident response frameworks like the one detailed in NIST SP 800-61, the detection and analysis phase begins with gathering evidence. For a web application attack, web server logs are the primary source of information, containing details of requests, IP addresses, and attacker methods. Securing and preserving these logs is the crucial first step before any meaningful analysis can begin. While reviewing account integrity, examining user behavior, and performing code reviews are all valid incident response tasks, they typically follow or are informed by the initial analysis of server logs.
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