Identify, Contain, Recover: A Blueprint of Incident Handling

Incident response is a systematic and coordinated approach to identify, contain, and recover from a cyber-security breach. The goal of incident response is to immediately respond and mitigate the impact of the suspected data breach within the organization. An incident response plan provides the organization with a clear set of instructions that act as the blueprint of incident handling. That said, the incident response planning contains specific directions to identifying damages, containing cybersecurity risk, and reducing recovering time.

This article will discuss the three steps – identify, contain, and recover – within the incident response plan that also acts as a blueprint of incident handling. But before that, let us briefly discuss the incident response and why incident response planning is important.

Incident Response

Targeted cybersecurity attacks towards the organization can wreak havoc, affecting customers, brand value, and the company’s intellectual property. The incident response mechanism helps the organization reduce these damages and recover from the security breach as soon as possible. Investigating the security breach is an important component as it can help the organization better prepare itself for the future. Also, with most businesses experiencing cyber-attacks these days, having a well-developed incident response is the best way to protect the organization.

Importance of Incident Response Planning

Planning for incident response is crucial because it acts as a blueprint for the organization to minimize the damage and duration of security incidents. Moreover, it also helps identify the key stakeholders, improve recovery time, reduce customer churn rate, and streamline digital forensics.

Even small cybersecurity attacks such as malware infection can snowball into exponentially large problems for organizations. Therefore, having a proper incident response plan can help the organization minimize losses and patch up vulnerabilities in the system. Moreover, planning for incident response can also help the organization establish best practices for incident handling and the development of a communication plan to notify employees, staff, and law enforcement agencies.

Blueprint of Incident Handling

Efficient incident handling of a data breach has three crucial stages – identification, containment, and recovery.

1. Identify

Whenever a security breach occurs within your organization, it is imperative to determine the nature of the incident. Therefore, start by documenting your response as you identify which aspects of your systems have been compromised and the potential damage inflicted by the breach. The identification step of the incident response is based on the monitoring of the system and networks so that if any irregularities are found, they can be flagged immediately. Being said that, once you have identified the incident, you will have to determine the type, severity, and other impacts related to it.

2. Contain

Good incident response is based on how quickly the organization contains the impact of the security breach. Your preparation of the incident response plan must ensure that you have access to the right tools and skills, which will help you with the containment process of the security breach. It is one of those steps in your incident response plan wherein time is of utmost importance.

3. Recovery

Once you have contained the threat, the next step in the incident handling process is to recover from the damages inflicted. For this, you can start by getting your systems up and running again. However, it is very crucial to continuously monitor your systems to ensure that the incident has been completely resolved and that there are no other potential threats left. Ensure that all of your systems are restored and backed up to resume operations.

Source: eccouncil.org