If your company hasn’t fallen target to a security breach, you’re perhaps one of the lucky ones. However, you probably won’t be secure for long, as the majority of organizations, at some stage, will encounter a cyber security incident. Each day a different company is caught off guard by a data breach. As the threat of security incidents is at an all-time high, you need to have proper plans and policies in place to cope with any threats that may arise. However, there is definitely no such thing as absolute security. Even if you’ve outsourced your IT professionals or your data exists in the cloud, eventually, the accountability for keeping your customer data safe falls on your shoulders.
In the unfortunate case that your company undergoes a breach, you should be ready and equipped to handle it promptly because when a cyber security incident occurs, every second matter. Malware infections quickly spread, ransomware can cause terrible damage to the business, and compromised accounts can be used for privilege escalation, leading attackers to more sensitive assets. However, there is no comprehensive way in describing the steps required to combat cyber-attacks.
How To Create An Cyber Security Incident Response Plan?
An ideal incident response plan should be prepared to address a suspected data breach in a series of incident response plan phases. And for each of the phase, some specific areas are required to be considered.
The phases of incident response are:
- Preparation
- Identification
- Containment
- Eradication
- Recovery
- Lessons Learned
How To Deal With Cyber Security Incident?
Here’s a quick and easy plan to implement, that outlines ways to proactively react and recover from a cyber security incident. Let’s discuss them:
1. Build an Incident Response Team
Choose a group of skilled individuals to include in your cyber security incident response team. Allot each member a particular role and set of responsibilities, and take preference over normal duties. This team can be composed of a variety of sections including Information Technology, Human Resources, and Compliance. Especially, your Incident Response Team should consist of your Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), who will finally guide the business’s security policy direction.
2. Recognize the type and amount of the incident
Before your cyber security incident response team can alleviate any incidents, it must evaluate the damage to determine a suitable response. For example, if the incident is a type of computer virus that can be quickly and proficiently detected and removed without affecting any internal or external parties, the appropriate response may be to document the incident and save it on your records. Disconnecting the affected systems from the internet will stop the further damage from spreading.
A redundant back-up system will help your business to restore operations. This task could efficiently be handled and controlled by the internal IT department or outsourced cloud provider.
3. Escalate incidents as necessary
Certain departments may be informed of selected computer security incidents, including the IT team or the client service team. These parties should use their preference in escalating incidents to the cyber security incident management team. Any event suspected as a result of damage or a targeted attack should be instantly escalated. This comprises phishing scams used to appeal to employees to enter credentials or wire money to fake accounts, ransomware or cyber surveillance campaigns aimed to hold onto company data or assets hostage, or disruptions in business networks that may present as suspicious exposures or unexpected downtime.
4. Inform affected parties and organizations
One associate of the cyber security incident response team should be accountable for handling communication to affected parties e.g. investors, third-party vendors, etc. depending on the seriousness of the incident, the cyber security consultant will act as the link between the organization and law enforcement.
5. Collect evidence of the damage
When applicable and required, the cyber security incident management team is accountable for recognizing and collecting both physical and electronic evidence as part of the investigation. A thorough research of the whole incident is needed because if any security breach or malware remain in your systems, then it may lead to lost of valuable data or information, and also your liability may increase in this case.
6. Alleviate risk and exposure
A technical cyber security specialist should be in charge of observing the situation and safeguarding any effects or damage created as a result of the cyber security incident are properly repaired and actions are taken to minimize future happenings. The cyber security incident response team will also need to describe any necessary consequences as a result of the incident. For instance, an unfortunate wire transfer made as a result of a fraudulent phishing email could result in the termination of the employee in charge.
Conclusion
Cyber incident management allows organizations to define response security measures in advance. There is a wide range of approaches to the incident cyber response. Most of the cyber response security professionals agree with the above mentioned incident cyber response steps and phases, which include preparation, detection and investigation, containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident checks.
Tier 3 I.T. Solutions, cyber security company in Edmonton, can help you to prepare your organizations by leveraging a combination of assessment checklists, detailed incident cyber response plans, brief and actionable incident response playbooks, along with policies that can power some of the processes. Even though well-planned, an cyber security incident response approach should remain flexible, allowing for continuous enhancement.
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