As AI capabilities compound the sophistication of cyberattacks, any organization that does not make it a priority to effectively prepare for potential data breaches could be putting its business at considerable risk.
Incident response refers to the scope of actions and procedures that will be taken during an incident. Basically, it is a set of measures taken to address security breaches of various types. A robust incident response strategy can not only make a significant difference in preventing data loss, but can also enable businesses to respond quickly in the event of an incident; communicate to relevant stakeholders; minimize damage to the company’s reputation; Ensure regulations are met and reduce the costs of a data breach. Unfortunately, many organizations (which tend to be SMEs rather than larger corporations) do not have an up-to-date and well-prepared incident response strategy.
Also known as IT incidents and security incidents, such events must be handled in a way that reduces recovery time and costs. To mitigate risks and be prepared for the widest variety of events possible, it is vital that organizations create a detailed and comprehensive incident response plan.
VP of Product Management at NAKIVO.
Incident response versus disaster recovery
An incident response plan should be incorporated into a disaster recovery plan. These are two components of a comprehensively developed data protection strategy. A common mistake organizations often make is creating these two plans independently. The best practice is to develop, implement and test them as a complex set of measures to protect data security and integrity.
At the same time, although the objectives of incident response and disaster recovery plans are related, they are not the same. The key difference between incident response and disaster recovery plans lies in the type of events they address. The first defines the roles and responsibilities of an incident response team to ensure the smooth functioning of incident response processes. In turn, a disaster recovery plan focuses on returning your production environment to an operational state after an incident occurs and successfully recovering from any damage caused.
An incident response specialist must ensure a uniform approach and ensure that none of the steps outlined are skipped. Another important task is to determine where the problem is coming from to avoid similar incidents in the future. Finally, it is important to regularly update your incident response plan to ensure it addresses both evolving cyber threats and the current needs of your infrastructure.
If an incident response plan is successfully integrated into the disaster recovery plan, organizations will be able to respond to any disaster much more quickly and efficiently.
Creating an incident response strategy
Security vulnerabilities, human errors, and technological failures can be avoided, so employee training should be a key part of the strategy. Additionally, you must analyze the needs of the environment and ensure that your plans meet them.
Organizations should consider preparing a plan tailored to the potential failure of a virtual machine, network, cloud, data center, etc. For example, an effective data protection solution could save a lot of time and costs. You should also consider that there is a risk that a disaster could affect the organization’s physical server, the office, the entire building, or even a region. Although some of these scenarios may seem unlikely, it is best to be prepared for the widest variety of unexpected events possible.
Thus, the purpose of both incident response and disaster recovery plans is to minimize the impact of an unexpected event, recover from it, and return to normal production level as quickly as possible. Furthermore, both contain an element of learning: it is important to identify the roots of a problem and thus decide how to prevent similar incidents in the future. The main difference is their main objectives. The purpose of an incident response plan is to protect sensitive data during a security breach, while a disaster recovery plan serves to ensure the continuity of business processes after a service interruption. While it is key to remember that incident response and disaster recovery are not two separate disciplines, it is a good practice to document two separate plans. Although it may seem like having one document that covers all possible scenarios is a better idea, consolidated plans can lack depth and contain contradictions. This will simplify the document creation process and allow IT teams to find an appropriate scope of action more quickly, both during testing and in a real-life situation.
Types of security threats
One of the key principles of incident response and disaster recovery is to carefully develop plans to cover as many recovery scenarios as possible. Naturally, the key point is to do this before a disaster strikes and such a plan is urgently needed. To begin, you need to carefully examine the types of security incidents. Some of the most common threats are:
DDoS attack
The goal of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is to disrupt the services and traffic of a targeted server, network, or website. To carry out an attack, you need a network of malware-infected computers or a botnet. The attacker controls the bots remotely and sends them the necessary instructions. During a DDoS attack, machines in a botnet begin sending simultaneous requests to the target. The flood of malicious traffic can potentially slow down or completely crash the target system. If successful, a DDoS attack makes the service unavailable to users and often causes significant financial damage, as well as the loss or theft of sensitive data.
Malware and ransomware
Malware is a broad term that refers to viruses, worms, spyware, and other types of malicious programs. In some cases, it can act relatively harmlessly (change the wallpaper or delete files), but sometimes it remains hidden and steals sensitive information. Ransomware is a subset of malware and the key difference is that the user of the system receives a notification demanding payment of a ransom. For example, the victim may find his or her disks or files encrypted, while the attacker typically promises to restore the machine to its previous state after receiving payment.
Cybersecurity professionals insist that companies should never pay in these cases. For our part, we emphasize that an adequate backup solution is an effective weapon against ransomware. After all, the main reason a victim might pay a ransom is because they have no other alternative.
Phishing
This is a form of cyber fraud that aims to access personally identifiable information (PII). As a rule, attackers use social engineering techniques. The victim may receive an email or text message, or come across a social media post containing a link to a page where visitors are asked to submit their personal data. The key idea is to make the victim believe that they are dealing with a reputable entity such as a bank, government agency, or legitimate organization. Incident response in the event of a phishing attack should include preparation and post-incident phases. It’s also important to educate your colleagues so they can recognize the signs of a phishing attempt and avoid putting your network at risk.
Internal threat
Security threats of this type come from people related to an organization’s workflow, such as its employees, former employees, third parties, contractors, business partners, etc. In most cases, their main motivating factor is personal benefit. However, sometimes malicious insiders want to harm an organization and disrupt its services as revenge.
A common scenario is when data is stolen on behalf of external parties, such as competitors or business partners. Careless workers who mishandle data or install unauthorized applications also pose a threat. In other words, all possible attack vectors must be carefully analyzed to design comprehensive incident response and disaster recovery plans. Again, training employees and implementing a set of security procedures are two important steps that can help protect the corporate network.
Key takeaways from incident response
When it comes to creating an incident response strategy, the key thing to remember is that the approach is definitely not one-size-fits-all. Incident response development can be a continuous, gradual and measured process. And even for smaller organizations on a tight budget, it’s possible to create an effective plan, as long as you prioritize protecting business-critical data. Of course, it is vital to have a firm understanding of regulatory responsibilities, escalation processes, and compliance with reporting requirements. The strategy should ensure the inclusion of rules that cover the specific incident scenarios detailed above. Incident scenarios and their applicable responses should be practiced periodically to ensure that the IT team is up to date and fully prepared to take the necessary actions, and that the procedure will be effective in addressing existing threats.
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