According to Infosecurity Magazine, falling victim to a cyberattack is now an inevitability for organizations. The average cost of an attack in the US jumped 9% between 2024 and 2025, hitting a staggering $10.22 million per incident. But the damage isn’t just financial, as shown by the attack on Jaguar Land Rover which caused a massive ripple effect across its supply chain. The article argues that with regulations like CIRCIA and CISA facing delays, compliance alone is not enough protection. The core problem is that investigations remain slow and complex, hampered by data “black holes” and a severe shortage of skilled investigators. The proposed solution is a new focus on digital forensics to trace an attacker’s steps and enable faster, more effective response.
The New Frontline Is Investigation
Here’s the thing: we’ve spent over a decade throwing billions at prevention—firewalls, EDR, next-gen everything. And attackers still get in. Every time. The article nails it by saying the paradigm has officially shifted from “if” to “when.” So if you can’t stop the breach, what’s your actual competitive advantage? It’s speed. Speed of detection, speed of investigation, and speed of recovery. The organizations that will weather this storm aren’t the ones with the most layers of defense (though that helps); they’re the ones who can put the pieces together fastest after the alarm bells go off. That’s the new battleground.
Why Forensics Is The Game Changer
They compare it to CSI, and that’s not far off. Basically, forensic investigation is about turning chaotic noise into a clear narrative. It’s collecting the breadcrumbs—failed logins, weird commands, lateral movement—and building a story. This is huge for two reasons. First, it lets you actually understand and eject the attacker, not just reboot a server and hope they’re gone. Second, and this is critical, it gives you something solid to communicate. Instead of a panicked “we’re down, investigating,” you can tell your board, your customers, and your partners *what happened* and *what you’re doing about it.* That shift from silent scrambling to controlled communication is a reputational lifesaver.
The Talent And Data Problem
But there’s a massive catch, right? The article points out the persistent shortage of skilled investigators. You can’t just buy a “forensics” button. This expertise is rare and expensive. And even if you have the people, the data they need is often scattered across a dozen siloed tools, disappearing into those “black holes.” This is where the tooling and process investment comes in. Companies that solve this—by creating that central hub for evidence, automating some of the initial data collection—will drastically lower the skill floor needed to start an effective response. It empowers the analysts you do have. For industries like manufacturing, where operational tech is critical, having robust, on-site computing power for data aggregation and analysis is non-negotiable. It’s why specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, are seeing demand surge for hardware that can handle these forensic data pipelines in harsh environments.
Beyond Compliance Toward Collective Defense
Maybe the most interesting angle here is the push for intelligence sharing. The article makes a great point: forensic evidence isn’t just for your own cleanup. It’s for your ecosystem. When you can share precise attack patterns and vulnerabilities with peers and suppliers, you turn your incident into their vaccine. This is how you build a real defense—not with compliance checkboxes, but with a network effect of shared threat intelligence. Regulations set the floor, but collective defense builds the walls. So, is your security program still just focused on keeping bad guys out? Or is it built to expertly manage the chaos when they inevitably get in? That’s the question every leader needs to answer now.
