Incident response is a plan for methodically responding to cybersecurity policy. Different measures are taken for containing, mitigating and learning from the harm when any event is reprehensible. But not all cybersecurity incident needs investigation because all are not always serious. Some events like single login failure by any employee on site do not require in-depth investigation as it’s not a major issue. However, it is relevant to maintain a record of all those instances for investigations in the future.

Knowing about the incident response cycle, and incident response playbooks along its framework will assist you as well as your organisation in knowing about the accessibility of all sensitive information, thus facilitating you in preventing any kind of breach. It also assists in mitigating threats by instructing others and recognising vulnerabilities and because of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity, it has become easier.

About incident response life cycle

The incident response cycle is a step-by-step process for any company to detect and respond to service interruptions or any kind of security threat. It is important to have incident response plans in place to ensure data protection, prevent information leaks, and protect the organisation from infiltration.

It is imperative to stay prepared for data breach incidents as nowadays it has become very common. Incident response is very much stressful when any important asset is involved and you know that there is danger. Information security training assists in efficient containment and recovery in intense, stressful conditions. Time of response is very important for preventing damages, for which it is vital for formulating some incident response plan steps.

NIST incident response procedure

NIST or the National Standards and Technology Institute is one of the government agencies that works in several technical domains such as cybersecurity and is famous for its incident response measures. The steps are

• Preparation: Development and execution of required methods for the protection of important infrastructure.

• Detecting and analysing: For keeping a regular check on all systems, information, data and operations along with management of safety risks successfully.

• Containment, suppression and recovery: Restoration of affected systems in minimum time.

• Post-incident activity: Taking required steps to avoid such incidents.
  

SANS incident response process

SANS Institute is an organisation that provides information security research and education. It is one of the biggest information security training providers across the world and has a large collection of cybersecurity studies. Its incident response steps are

• Preparation: First the security policy of any organisation is seen and codified, then a risk assessment is done; sensible assets are recognised, security incidents are established and then a computer security incident response team is created.

• Identifying: IT systems can track and recognise deviations from standard activities and check if they establish real safety incidents. It involves collecting such information when any of the occurrences are detected, assessing its form and intensity and logging all things.

• Control: Performing containment is short-term through isolation of the part of the network that is at risk. Then emphasis is on long-term containment that requires temporary adjustments to allow systems for being used in production during rejuvenating clean systems.

• Suppression: Removing malware from every infected device, acknowledging the root cause of the attack and taking steps to prevent such attacks.

• Recovery: To avoid any attacks, it is required to keep the affected system back online. To make sure they are back to normal functioning, testing, checking and tracking the impacted system is important.

Conclusion

So, a properly trained incident response team with a cyber essential checklist is important for recognising and mitigating threats and companies always look for skilled candidates.