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Cybersecurity Incident Response

What Is an Incident Response?

Incident response (IR) refers to a collection of policies and procedures for detecting, containing, and removing cyberattacks. The purpose of incident response is for an organization to be able to swiftly detect and stop attacks, reducing damage and preventing similar attacks in the future. The incident response includes cyber incident response, data breach response,business email compromise response, ransomware response, and digital forensics.

Why Is Incident Response Important?

Companies suffer operational downtime, reputational damage, and financial loss as a result of data breaches. Any vulnerability becomes more dangerous the longer it remains in a system. Breach of security results in a decrease in stock value and a loss of customer trust for the majority of businesses. Companies need a well-planned cybersecurity incident response plan to eliminate such risks, which attempts to –

  • Restoring daily business operations.
  • Minimizing financial and reputational losses.
  • Fixing cyber vulnerabilities comprehensively and quickly.
  • Strengthening security posture to avoid future attacks.

Another important goal is to integrate the security posture with regulatory requirements. To avoid significant fines and penalties, businesses should adhere to these guidelines.

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What Is An Incident Response Plan?

An incident response plan is a predetermined strategy for dealing with a cyberattack by an organization. A list of incident response team members, their roles and responsibilities, tools and technologies, steps to detect and identify cyberattacks, steps to contain and minimize damage (including reputational damage), and processes for incident recovery should all be included in an incident response plan.

How To Create An Incident Response Plan?

The six steps of an incident response plan, according to the SANS Institute checklist, are:

  • Preparation: Train users and security staff to manage potential security incidents.
  • Identification: Determine whether an event qualifies as a security incident.
  • Containment: Limit the damage of a cybersecurity incident and isolate affected systems to prevent more damage.
  • Eradication: Find the root cause of the incident and remove affected systems from the production environment.
  • Recovery: Ensure no threat remains and permit affected systems back into the production environment.
  • Lessons learned: Document the incident, perform analysis to learn from the incident, and update procedures to improve future incident response.

What Are the Common Types of Incidents?

Phishing attacks

350% rise in phishing websites at the start of 2020 – United Nations

Denial-of-Service attacks

595% year-over-year increase in DDoS attacks against utilities worldwide – NETSCOUT

Ransomware attacks

20% hike in ransomware attacks within 6-months, amounting to 121.4 million events – SonicWal

SQL injections

8000% rise in SQL Injection attacks in 2019, versus 2018 – WatchGuard

Malware attacks

176% increase in new malware attacks disguised as Microsoft Office file types – SonicWall.

Start Planning for Your Next Security Incident

An incident response plan is a predetermined strategy for dealing with a cyberattack by an organization. A list of incident response team members, their roles and responsibilities, tools and technologies, steps to detect and identify cyberattacks, steps to contain and minimize damage (including reputational damage), and processes for incident recovery should all be included in an incident response plan. Aspire Tech provides a range of tools and technologies that allow businesses to detect, prevent, and mitigate security threats.

This includes the powerful ASIEM, Fortinet's security information and event management tool, which helps organizations manage and secure their increasingly complex infrastructure and attack surface. Another is the streamlined ASOAR, Fortinet's comprehensive security orchestration, automation, and response tool, which remedies the biggest security challenges and optimizes processes. Organizations can also use network security solutions, such as an intrusion prevention system (IPS) or next-generation firewall (NGFW), to identify suspicious activity and protect themselves from malicious attacks.

  • Cyber Security Consulting
  • Data Center Consulting
  • Big Data Consulting
  • Backup and DR Consulting
  • Infrastructure 24 x 7 Support Consulting
  • Enterprise Architecture Consulting
  • Customer Relationship Management
  • Human Capital Management
  • Governance, Risk and Compliance
  • Finance and Accounting

White papers, opinion essays, and research studies on current business challenges are part of our active thought leadership program. By selecting the Resource Center tab at the top of this column, you can access these materials.

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Investigate Business And Financial Misconduct. Evaluate Opportunities and Analyze Risk. Secure Assets And People. Monitor, Remediate And Recover Assets. Respond To And Investigate Data Breaches.