Incident Response in Cybersecurity: Preparing for a Security Breach

Fueled by changes in how people live and work in the post-Covid world, more and more cyber attacks and data breaches are affecting organizations of all sizes. It's crucial to be prepared for the worst. We often say that in cybersecurity, it's important to think about "when" an attack will occur, not "if" it will occur. And while being proactive is touted as the key to an organization's most effective security posture, one should never dismiss the value of reactive security practices, either. Building up your defences against attacks and cyber risks is important, as is knowing how to detect malicious actors who have breached your systems. Having these strengths can discourage incidents from escalating into major data breaches. And data breaches, as we know, can lead to financial, reputational and legal repercussions that may be detrimental, even devastating, to an entire organization and all of its operations. Organizations may never completely eradicate security incidents, but they can establish procedures to help minimize their effects. Preparing for an incident and knowing how to brace for its eventual impact is a solid method of prevention against cyber attacks. This is where incident response comes into play. Difference between a security event and an incident Before we delve into incident response, let's explore what a "security incident" is, and how it differs from a "security event." These terms can be confusing, and the line that separates them is somewhat blurred. Security alerts help organizations detect cyber attacks and potential malicious behaviour quickly. These alerts are produced by an array of security tools that security analysts ingest for their valuable work. And because these alerts indicate security events which can be false positives or false negatives, they need to be analyzed. For example, if an analyst in the SOC receives an alert from their SIEM, they'll need to determine whether that event is a true positive with a negative impact on the organization, such as a financial or reputational risk. If determined to have a potential impact on the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the organization's information security, it becomes a security incident. That's when it warrants initiation of the incident response protocol. So, in plain English, a security event is just that, an event that needs further examination. It might be a false alarm, and only becomes a security incident when it's determined to have a potential for damaging effect. What is incident response (IR)? When a security incident occurs, it's essential for your organization to be ready for whatever comes next as well as how to respond. Incident response (IR) is a methodical approach, one that includes policies and procedures to prepare for, detect, contain and recover from a security incident. The goals of incident response are to limit damage, reduce recovery time, lessen costs the incident may cause, and for the organization to recover as quickly as possible. Incident response ensures that the organization can get "back to normal", meaning the state the system was in before the incident occurred, and is equipped with the techniques and knowledge needed to prevent the incident's reoccurrence. It also allows organizations to establish best practices for damage prevention while helping to inform other, more proactive security practices. A rather important note about incident response is that it's not only an IT process, but a business process as well, helping organizations with continuity and quick decision-making. Because security incidents can have both short-term and long-term effects on an organization, incident response can be considered part of the business continuity process, with its goal of maintaining normal business operations and minimizing the impact of unexpected events. Additionally, security incidents carry with them a slew of potential financial losses due to the high data recovery costs, breaches of regulatory co...