What can you do when attacks happen? You must have a cybersecurity incident response plan ready. Remember, every second matter.
Besides, malware and ransomware can quickly spread. So, it can cause big damage to your part.
Also, your accounts and data are in danger. Attacks can get access to more sensitive information.
Thus, you need to have a plan before these incidents happen. But first, what is the cybersecurity incident response?
What is a cybersecurity incident response?
Incident is a term for a data breach or a cyberattack. Incident response is the process of handling a data breach or attack.
It also includes knowing the incident when it occurs. It also includes lessening the damage and fixing the cause of the incident.
Why is it important?
A cybersecurity incident response is important because it can cost you a lot of money.
Aside from the loss of your company, it also involves violating privacy laws.
Moreover, these laws include the General Data Protection Regulation. It aims to make data privacy as a basic human right.
Thus, if data breaches happen, legal actions are required.
So, how can you deal with cybersecurity incidents?
4 Incident Response Phases
Now, what can you do?
First, ensure that your incident response plan applies the response phases. NIST recommended these response phases for a solid incident response plan.
- Preparation
- Detection and Analysis
- Containment, Eradication, and Recovery
- Post-Incident Activity
6 Steps of a Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan
Here are the key steps of an IR plan:
Preparation
Before security incidents happen, have a plan ready. Train a team who will respond to incidents.
Also, you can build a Cyber Security Incident Response Team or CSIRT. It involves people with technical and non-technical specialties.
Besides, if breaches happen, you should inform your legal team immediately.
Detection
Your team should identify the source of an attack first. Then, restrain the damage.
Your security teams, along with the right programs, can help you detect these threats. These programs include:
- security products that send alerts, or SIEMs
- algorithms that detect altered files
- anti-malware software
- system logs
Containment
A security incident is like a forest fire. Act quickly once you detect the source.
Also, you can contain system damage by:
- disabling network access
- installing software patches to fix issues
- resetting passwords
- blocking insiders’ accounts
- backing up your affected systems
Eradication
Neutralize the threat and restore systems to its previous state. You can also mitigate the systems and hosts that were under attack.
By doing this successfully, your standard business operation will go back, too.
Recovery
After neutralizing the threats, continue to check for any abnormal activity.
Also, it involves two important methods:
- do system validation and test if they’re working
- recertify compromised parts as secured
Review the lessons
To avoid the same incident in the future, examine the lessons. Most of the time, incidents happen because of overlooking things that could have been prevented.
These include:
- educating employees on how to avoid scams and breaches
- patching security gaps
- having new technologies for improved monitoring
Conclusion
Cyberattacks continue to happen every day. So, having incident response plans are your company’s best defense.
We hope this article helps you in developing your cybersecurity IR plan.
