Cybersecurity Incident Response: Best Practices and Challenges

Guide for Practices and Challenges of Cybersecurity Incident Response

Incident response is an integral component of cybersecurity strategy in any enterprise. Cybersecurity incident response refers to the process and technologies of an organization for detection and response to cyber threats, cyberattacks, or security breaches. An effective cybersecurity incident response plan helps to restore the affected systems through cybersecurity faster.

The cybersecurity incident response plan is executed by a computer security incident response team (CSIRT) that includes stakeholders from across the organization, the chief information security officer (CISO), IT professionals, and representatives from legal, HR and risk management.

Incident response best practices

Now, let's explore how the cybersecurity incident response can be practiced:

Build an incident response plan

Develop a cybersecurity incident response plan that must be followed at the time of an incident. The incident response plan helps to restore business operations faster and more effectively.

A cybersecurity incident response plan usually includes:

• The roles and responsibilities of each member of the computer security incident response team (CSIRT) are to be followed efficiently.
• It involves installing the security solution in software, hardware, and other technologies in the system.
• In the event of an outage, a business continuity plan must be prepared for restoring the systems that are adversely affected.
• The employees and customers of the organization must be informed about the cybersecurity incident and laws enforced for it.
• Documenting the cybersecurity incident for post-mortem review and legal proceedings is essential.

Use an incident response framework

Cybersecurity incident response plans are based on the framework of cybersecurity incident response. The cybersecurity incident framework include response operations and the way the operations are segmented. While developing an incident response program, review the cybersecurity incident frameworks to determine the best-suited elements for your organization. Cybersecurity incident frameworks can be available from NIST, ISO, ISACA, and Cloud Security Alliance.

Create incident response playbooks

Organizations should keep a record of the incident response in playbooks. Documenting step-by-step procedures to address cybersecurity incidents such as phishing attacks and ransomware, malware infections and network intrusions.

Build an incident response team

Building an efficient incident response team is important for the management of incident response. Creating an incident response team must include technical professionals, IT professionals, legal, HR, and communication representatives. It should also include external stakeholders and third parties, such as service providers and consultants.

Keep lines of communication open

An incident response communication plan provides updates on the progress of the incident response teams. Communications need to be internal and external depending on the incident.

Train response personnel

The members of the incident response team must be provided training on incident response processes. Conduct periodic training that help to respond when cybersecurity incidents occur.

Continuously evaluate processes

Incident response processes must be evaluated, and updated based on new changes that occur in IT and business operations. Outdated plans may confuse and undermine incident response procedures.

Conduct post-incident reporting

When the cybersecurity incident has been mitigated the incident response team should create a report on every detail about the incident and what better response plans can be made to respond to such an incident.

Challenges in Cyber Incident Response

Many challenges are faced while managing an incident response plan by an organization. Some of these challenges include:

Privacy Requirements

Depending on the organization, it may involve several regulatory compliance guidelines. The organizations entail a great overlap when it comes to privacy policies. Organizations responsible for storing, processing, or transporting sensitive client information need to be careful about the way they do so. Regulatory compliance is challenging with several regulations followed. These regulations update with time in response to cybersecurity incidents. These shifting of privacy requirements make compliance difficult to maintain.

Internal cyber threats

Many cybersecurity frameworks are framed on the assumption that cyber attackers originate from the external environment and are now within the organization. The challenge here is that many organizations do not have a proper cyber incident response plan for internal cyber threats.

Information Deficiencies

One of the key aspects of an organization's ability to detect and respond to cybersecurity incidents is information. The key challenge here is compiling, categorizing, and processing the various data required for effective incident management which is difficult as small and medium size organizations have fewer resources dedicated to IT.

One of the best ways to mitigate damages due to cybersecurity incidents is to include interdisciplinary teams in the organization. Risk Managers can play a vital role in coordinating among the technologists and legal professionals that can help us to mitigate such losses.