What is a key item to consider when designing incident response procedures?
You’re in luck. This post discusses the importance of incident response plans in helping to safeguard business operations against cyber attacks. We also dive into a step-by-step approach to help you create and execute your own incident response plan.
Show
How to Develop an Incident Response PlanThere are several incident response phases. Credits: Exabeam.com As per the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) framework, there are four primary steps in developing an incident response plan: PreparationThe preliminary phase begins with establishing the ground rules, training the incident response team, and identifying the appropriate tools and resources. This phase also emphasizes implementing a set of controls according to the risk assessment reports. During this phase, the organization works on building the capability to respond to any security incidents.
Incident PreventionThis step within the preparation phase focuses on minimizing the occurrence of incidents. Detection and AnalysisThe second phase involves detection and analysis. When an incident occurs, the organization needs to determine the best course of action. This is when detection and analysis become essential. Security incidents arise from countless sources, so organizations must devise step-by-step instructions for resolving every incident using essential attack vectors and incident response strategies. Containment, Eradication, and RecoveryContainment is vital to minimize the impact of a cybersecurity incident. Most incidents require containment, so the immediate goal of the teams is to prevent the incident from causing further damage. In such scenarios, the teams must collect as much evidence from all the computing resources to resolve the security incident. When you know who the attacking host is, the organization’s incident response plan must focus on identifying host addresses, gaining more information on the attack, and increasing monitoring of the communication channels of the attacking hosts. After containing the incidents, the eradication procedure eliminates all the components of the incidents from the systems and applications of all the users. During the eradication, the teams work together to identify the root cause of the security breach. This includes the deletion of malware or removing any vulnerabilities from the network. Eradicating the threat involves consulting forensic data experts and working towards recovery by analyzing the breach information from the evidence. Post-Incident ActivityThe post-incident activity emphasizes learning from the incident. This includes learning and improving with training, discussions with different parties, and reflecting on how to deal with new threats with new technology integration. At the same time, during periodic meetings, team members discuss the learning of previous cyber threat encounters. But it is necessary to conduct these meetings no later than two weeks from the recovery to ensure accurate information is available for analysis and discussion. Organizations devising an incident response plan must conduct these meetings with themes revolving around critical questions that include:
Common Security IncidentsThere is a wide range of common cyber incidents that every organization considers alarming:
Incident Response Plan: Roles and ResponsibilitiesA cyber incident response plan must provide incident response roles for post-incident analysis. In such scenarios, the disaster recovery plan must avoid duplicate work to help speed up identifying affected parties. Resolving incidents become more complex when there is a lack of communication, coordination, and well-laid responsibilities. As a result, several tasks become repetitive, leading to a longer recovery time. That’s why effective security practices require clear organizational roles and responsibilities. Most incident response team members comprise experts such as: Incident ManagerThe incident manager assumes the primary role of the incident response teams. They are responsible for directing all the efforts and resources toward solving the security incident. Incident response manager delegates and assigns different roles and responsibilities to team members according to the nature of the incident and reports all progress to the top-tier management. Senior Tech LeadTech leads are senior technical professionals investigating the security event’s root cause. They identify the problem areas that need attention and understand the nature of the breach to devise an immediate action. Likewise, tech leads communicate the action plan to other team members and report the updates to the incident manager. Communication ManagerAs the name suggests, the communication manager’s sole responsibility is to manage communication among the incident response team members. These professionals also communicate the incident to customers, the public, legal and federal authorities, and other stakeholders in the organization. Legal RepresentativeAn incident response plan also needs the appointment of a legal team to perform a thorough investigation of the cybersecurity incidents and offer guidance for compliance and other standard security protocols by law enforcement authorities. AnalystsThese analysts are the primary researchers within the organization who perform tasks like collecting evidence and other records in the context of the incident for thorough security analysis. In addition, they implement various security tools to perform threat intelligence to determine incident definitions and employ various analytical measures to identify the primary cause of the incident, provide the reports to the incident manager for further investigation, and employ better threat detection mechanisms and containment strategy. Incident Response Plan: Key TakeawaysAn incident response plan must have some vital elements to be more effective for an organization. Josh Fechter Josh Fechter is the co-founder of Product HQ, founder of Technical Writer HQ, and founder and head of product of Squibler. You can connect with him on LinkedIn here. What is a key guideline to follow when designing incident response procedures?Your incident response plan should define the objectives, stakeholders, responsibilities, communication methods, and escalation processes used throughout the incident response lifecycle. Keep the plan simple and flexible. Test, revisit, and revise it annually to keep it effective.
What are the key elements of an incident response plan?8 Essential Elements for an Incident Response Plan. A Mission Statement.. Formal Documentation of Roles and Responsibilities.. Cyberthreat Preparation Documentation.. An Incident Response Threshold Determination.. Management and Containment Processes.. Fast, Effective Recovery Plans.. Post-Incident Review.. What are the three key components of the incident response procedure?Containment, Eradication and Recovery.
This portion of the plan will be the most technical of the document. The containment section will outline the strategies for limiting the scope of the incident.
What are the key capabilities in incident response services?This includes the following critical functions: investigation and analysis, communications, training, and awareness as well as documentation and timeline development.
|