Prepare for cybersecurity attacks before they happen. Having an incident response plan in place gives you an actionable procedure to lean on when disaster strikes.

Truth be told, every organization in the world, from Peloton to Nathan’s Hot Dogs on Coney Island, is getting hacked every moment of every day. Email phishing, ransomware, credit card fraud, password spraying, or malware attacks – every organization is under attack. To be fair, not all organizations are attacked equally. Preparing for a cyberattack is only a small step in the overall strategy; organizations need to adapt to combat the ongoing threat vectors impacting their daily lives.

A plan to respond

Incidents do not care if responders are or are not prepared to respond; Therefore, it’s pivotal to have an appropriate leadership in place that is capable of directing response operations efficiently and effectively. Implementing an efficient and repeatable incident-response methodology requires a structure that addresses actions taken by senior management to develop and implement the IR policy, plan, and computer security incident response team.

The plan is a living and breathing documented product, the result of incident response planning. Therefore, the plan demonstrates the organization’s intended efforts in the event of an incident.

Organizations are continuously under attack each and every day, and SECOPS and DevOps teams must develop a clear strategy as to how, and, more importantly, when to respond to cyberattacks. Developing an instance response program allows an organization to develop a valuable workstream based on a clear understanding of risk, priority, and an agreed-upon toolset of responses.

Many firms leverage the MITRE attack framework as a basis for determining risk and response and prioritizing the sheer volume of attacks. Within the MITRE attack framework, organizations can track firsthand which attacks should be addressed with SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) capability. SOAR allows for automated responses to security threats. In many cases, the SOAR function can be invoked without human interaction on adaptive controls like QRadar or the LogRhythm SIEM platform. These SIEMS use PowerShell and API calls directly at the endpoint, firewall, routers, etc., to instill an immediate shutdown to prevent the attack from spreading.

Detection and response capabilities

In all cybersecurity plans, detection is the first critical step in stopping the “kill chain” from executing. The first step that an organization must consider is knowing what is being targeted. For instance, the attack could be against your website, point-of-sale systems, or even your employee database system.

Deploying known security adaptive controls like firewalls, IDS sensors, VPN for remote access, and multi-factor authentication are proven in their ability to stop many threat vectors. Complex “kill chain” attacks require organizations to extend their “defense-in-depth” strategy to include 24 / 7 managed services, CASB (cloud access-secured broker) capability for cloud access, and data leakage prevention, along with zero trust remote access. These complex solutions help increase detection and now bring a higher level of response to SECOPS teams.

Incident response program development – downtime sucks!

The purpose of having an incident response plan in place is to provide a guideline for managing cybersecurity alerts and events. Don’t get caught off guard and resort to making it up as you go.

Whether you are looking to build a response plan from the ground up, conduct a post-assessment, or test your current response plan, our team of experts can meet you where you are today.

Every organization, regardless of size or industry, should have a plan to proactively manage and respond to security threats. EVEE Consulting can help you in minimizing the downtime and potential revenue loss from a security incident.