Incident Response

Incident Response (IR) is an organized approach to addressing and managing the aftermath of a security breach or cyberattack. The goal is to handle the situation in a way that limits damage, reduces recovery time and costs, and prevents future incidents. Having a well-defined and rehearsed Incident Response Plan (IRP) is critical. When an incident occurs, there is no time to figure out who should do what. The plan provides a step-by-step guide for the incident response team. The SANS Institute outlines a popular six-phase IR lifecycle: 1. Preparation: This phase occurs before any incident. It involves establishing the IR team, acquiring the necessary tools and resources, and conducting training and drills. 2. Identification: This is the process of detecting a deviation from normal operations and determining whether it is a security incident. This phase relies heavily on effective logging and monitoring. 3. Containment: Once an incident is identified, the immediate goal is to contain it to prevent further damage. This might involve isolating a compromised system from the network or disabling certain user accounts. Containment strategies can be short-term (e.g., unplugging a server) or long-term (e.g., rebuilding a clean system while the infected one is analyzed). 4. Eradication: In this phase, the root cause of the incident is identified and the threat is eliminated from the environment. This could involve removing malware, patching vulnerabilities, and resetting compromised passwords. 5. Recovery: This phase involves restoring the affected systems to normal operation and verifying that they are clean and secure. This might involve restoring from backups. 6. Lessons Learned: After the incident is resolved, a post-incident review is conducted. The team analyzes what happened, what went well, what could have been done better, and how to prevent the incident from recurring. The IRP and security controls are then updated based on these findings.