What is the incident response?
Before progressing further with the contents of this article, it is important for you to have a brief sketch in mind about what is incident response? Incident response can be modeled as the structured methodology which is implemented to check out various security incidents, breaches as well as cyber threats. A well thought out incident plan will always act in such a way to determine the likability of cyber threats and breaches sustained by your organization and how to eradicate them.
So, the first order of business would be to find out the threats, cyber anomalies, breaches, and other security violations that have happened. And after their introduction proper steps should be taken to eradicate the hostilities that linger within the security interface of an organization.
During the onset of the breach your cybersecurity team might be all worked up and exploring different levels of threats and the elements that need fixing. In such haphazardness they might lose the importance of what is at stake and need to be fixed first and continue running their errands up and down the charged sheet. That is why having pre-planned cybersecurity or incident response plan is an effective remedy while keeping calm and battling with the problems at hand.
6 Incident Response Steps to Take after a Security Event
Following is a list of the 6 steps that should be taken instantly after a security event has prevailed itself at your organization;
- Assembling your team
The first and foremost thing that you need to do is assemble your team and do it in the short time that is made available to you before the situation escalates. You must bundle the right people with the right skill set to tackle the situation at hand. Appoint one individual the head of the team who would be in direct communication with all the members and different sections of the organization taking action on the breach.
Not only this but the person would also be held responsible for the performance of every team member. If you deem it important then you can also bundle along people from different cross-sections departments of your organization. Such as stationing people from the communication control with the individuals from human resources.
All of this depends on the nature of the incident or breach that you are currently facing. Furthermore, the right time to build your team is now instead of waiting out for the right time when a security event is breathing down your neck.
- Detect and nullify the source of the breach
The next order of business would be to contain the source of the breach and lockout the possible entry point if it still exists. This will help you in locking the primary source of the breach down and then moving forward with the other steps. The identification of the problem or location of the source can come down from system administrators, security staff, or others from within your organization while reporting the signs of a security breach.
Other than that various software such as file integration checking system, anti-malware programs, and data logs as they would clearly help you in understanding the base of the breach by providing validated information.
- Contain and recover
A cybersecurity event or incident is much like a forest fire that continues to grow and take everything under it to burn and destroy. That is why when you are confident that you have found the source of the problem or otherwise root from where access was issued and the whole security event started then you should better work on containing it. It might include disabling the networking of your website or organization complete while taking all data reservoirs down at the same time.
Further with this approach you might also be checking in with the antivirus and anti-malware systems to come around the specific type of the virus or malware that you are dealing with at hand. This would unlock a vast mountain of information for you and your team to better deal with the incident that you are currently facing.
- Assess the damage and severity of the breach
The next thing on your list should be assessing the damage caused by the breach and the possible internal or external threats that could have caused it. For example, was the breach a result of an attack on the server that handles main business operations or could shut down important e-commerce operations? OR an attacker or hacker used something specific to take down your security interface such as a SQL injection attack which overloaded the servers and resulted in the incident? List down all these possible things that could have resulted or you suspect has happened.
- Initiate the notification response
When an organization is hit with a cyber-breach or a related anomaly then they are not in this alone necessarily. It is your responsibility during those crucial times to notify the parties or the clients that were also affected by this disaster. Important user data which could be either personal or financial could have been stolen or other information on the stakeholders might be compromised. That is why you need to take action and take it right now on notifying all these people so they can better protect themselves amid this security incident.
- Build now to prevent the same incident in the future
It is not about what you have achieved but the road you took to achieve it that matters the most. In case of a cyber breach it is not the fact that the breach has been contained but you still should be able to learn a great deal from all the actions took by the professionals. Learning your mistakes and analyzing the best strategy taken against a particular breach that resulted in the instant fixing of the problem is what you need. You need to work on your strategies and develop a powerful security incident response around it in order to avoid the same incidents prevailing in the future.
Learn by enrolling in our courses and get the right skills to be classified as an incident response expert but first you would have to start with the incident response training right away.