Security is a growing challenge for many businesses these days. It’s the reason so many security firms are so busy. From cyber threats to physical breaches of property, there is a serious need to keep a business secure. It takes a coordinated response from mission control to really stop an attack in its tracks. This is why incident management is so important.
There is a lot of noise when it comes to threats so it becomes very difficult to know how to handle them without wasting resources or failing to identify the real ones. Incident response management needs to have a process and not just a reaction to things. In this article, we will go over the steps of incident management response so you can see if your system is working as it should.
1 – Be prepared
It doesn’t matter how experienced your team is, if there is not a predetermined protocol for an incident then the response is going to be delayed at best. It could even be a failure if there is no coordination in the response.
The very first thing to do is to have an agreement in place on how to handle certain situations. Policies and procedures will help to understand how to proceed in specific situations.
Preparation also includes understanding your threats. It is helpful to do an analysis of what types of threats you are facing so a protocol can be worked out ahead of time for the different threats you face.
These types of preparations should be ongoing and be flexible as they can change depending on circumstances.
2 – Detection of threats
Monitoring events that are happening in real time is important as it will help you identify patterns and understand where the real threats lie. There are ongoing events that may be nothing or they may be something.
Since there are attacks on a server practically every minute, it is important to detect the real threats, for instance, detection will help you categorize threats but it depends on going beyond monitoring the security situation. Patterns need to be identified which will help you respond better to certain incidents.
3 – Triage
Allocating resources to where they are needed is the basis of triage in medicine and even with regard to security. It involves understanding which threats should take priority in how they are dealt with. There needs to be a triage protocol that will help you identify where resources need to be focused.
The first part of triage is to collect evidence and be able to parse the data that is incoming very quickly.
4 – Containment
Part of the preparation that you do will all come together when a threat is detected so it can be neutralized and contained before it is able to cause any damage. This requires coordination and understanding.
The timing of this coordination is essential so make sure that all your communications efforts are timely and effective. Notifications should be immediately sent and with the right preparation, teams can jump right into action to contain the threat.