Building a cybersecurity incident response plan, step by step

Blog Article by Entro Security

With ransomware and phishing attacks rising, a robust cybersecurity incident response plan (CSIRP) has become crucial. These digital threats lurk around every corner and wait to strike when you least expect it. According to Forbes, 2023 saw a 72% increase in data breaches compared to 2021, which previously held the record. Email remains a significant vector for malware, with around 35% of malware delivered through email in 2023. Think of your CSIRP as a fire drill for digital disasters—essential for when, not if, a cyber threat strikes. A solid CSIRP isn’t just about damage control; it’s your blueprint to bounce back swiftly and shut down potential threats.

A Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan (CSIRP) provides a structured approach to handling security incidents, ensuring that organizations can quickly respond to threats, minimize damage, and recover swiftly.

What is a cybersecurity incident response plan?

A Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan is a comprehensive, structured approach designed to help organizations detect, respond to, and recover from cyberattacks. The plan provides detailed guidelines on handling incidents like data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other security threats. By following these guidelines, organizations can manage incidents efficiently, mitigate risks, and restore normal operations as quickly as possible.

When considering an incident response plan, the key components include identifying incidents to detect security breaches, containment strategies to control the spread and impact, eradication efforts to eliminate the root cause, recovery processes to restore systems to their normal state and post-incident analysis to assess the event and refine future responses. An effective CSIRP is a proactive tool that helps organizations prepare for, detect, respond to, and recover from security incidents, ultimately reducing the potential damage and recovery time.

Why is a cybersecurity incident response plan important?

A cybersecurity response plan is critical for several reasons:

• Regulatory compliance: Many regulations, like the GDPR, require an incident response plan (CSIRP). A CSIRP helps meet these legal obligations and avoid fines.
• Business continuity: A cyber breach response plan ensures minimal disruption to operations during a security incident and keeps essential business functions running smoothly.
• Detailed guidelines and common language: The plan provides clear procedures and a common framework for responding to incidents and ensures everyone knows their role.
• Quick, coordinated responses: A CSIRP enables swift, organized action during incidents to reduce confusion and improve response efficiency.
• Continuous improvement: Post-incident reviews within the plan help refine and enhance the response strategy, adapting to new threats.

Incident response lifecycle (NIST Model)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides a widely recognized framework for incident response called the NIST Incident Response Lifecycle. Understanding the steps in creating an incident response plan, the NIST model outlines four key phases:

Preparation

In your Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan (CSIRP) preparation stage, you’re laying the groundwork for an effective defense. Just like you wouldn’t start a game without knowing the rules and having your gear ready, cybersecurity requires thorough preparation and the right tools in place.

• Identify assets and risks: Take inventory of hardware, software, networks, and personnel to understand risks.
• Create response teams: Assemble specialized teams with specific skills to handle cyber threats.
• Gather tools and resources: Equip your team with tools like laptops and forensic software. Use “jump kits” with essential items for quick deployment.
• Training and testing: Ensure everyone knows their role and how to use security tools. Regular drills encourage a culture of reporting suspicious activities and reward those who contribute.

Detection and analysis

Incidents can come from many angles, so planning for every potential threat is impossible. Instead, focus on developing procedures for the most common attack vectors. Here’s a breakdown of some key threats:

• Exposed non-human identities: Non-human identities such as access tokens, API keys, and security certificates that are exposed are a critical risk.
• External/removable media: Attacks launched from devices like USB drives.
• Attrition: Attempts to degrade, compromise, or destroy systems.
• Web attacks: Threats from websites or web applications, such as cross-site scripting or malicious redirects.
• Email threats: Attacks are delivered via email, often through phishing or harmful attachments.
• Impersonation: This includes spoofing and adversary-in-the-middle attacks, where something malicious is disguised as harmless.
• Loss or theft of equipment: The loss or theft of sensitive devices.

By focusing on these vectors, organizations can develop more targeted and effective response strategies tailored to the threats they are most likely to face.

Containment, eradication & recovery

Once a cybersecurity incident is detected, the next step is to contain, eradicate, and recover from it. These steps are crucial to minimizing the impact and restoring normal operations.

• Containment strategies: Isolate affected systems to prevent the incident from spreading. Strategies may include rotating and revoking access to exposed non-human identities, disconnecting systems from the network or blocking IP addresses, depending on the potential damage and evidence preservation needs.
• Eradication steps: Eliminate the root cause by removing malware, disabling compromised accounts, and closing vulnerabilities with patches or configuration changes. These steps ensure the threat is fully removed and does not recur.
• Recovery process: Restore systems from backups, apply the latest security patches, and monitor for residual threats. This ensures systems are free from malware and helps prevent future incidents.

Post-incident activity

Post-incident activities are crucial to refine your cybersecurity response. This phase focuses on analyzing the response to identify successes, shortcomings, and areas for improvement. Key steps include:

• Debriefing and review: Gather the response team to review the incident and focus on the timeline, decisions made, and actions taken. This review should be thorough and honest.
• Root cause analysis: To prevent future occurrences, identify the root cause of the incident, whether it was phishing, an exposed secret, a misconfigured server, or an insider threat.
• Performance evaluation: Assess the response team’s performance, including clarity of roles, effectiveness of communication, and adequacy of tools. This helps pinpoint areas for improvement.
• Documentation and reporting: Record the incident details, actions taken, lessons learned, and recommendations. This documentation aids future incident management and supports compliance.
• Policy and procedure updates: Based on the review, update the incident response plan, policies, and procedures. This could involve revising playbooks, adding tools, or improving communication protocols.

How often should you review your incident response plan?

To ensure your incident response plan remains effective, review it regularly, ideally every quarter, to keep pace with evolving threats and organizational changes. After any significant security incident, update the plan to incorporate lessons learned and address gaps. Also, revise the plan whenever major updates to your technology or cybersecurity tools exist. Adjustments are also necessary to comply with new or updated regulations and industry standards. Finally, the plan should be modified following significant organizational changes, such as mergers or new business processes.

Incident response teams

The success of an incident response plan heavily relies on the effectiveness of the incident response team (IRT). Different models can be adopted depending on the organization’s size and complexity:

1. Central incident response team: This model involves a single team responsible for handling all incidents within the organization. It is ideal for smaller organizations with limited resources, as it centralizes incident response efforts.
2. Distributed incident response team: In larger organizations, multiple teams may be responsible for different aspects of incident response. For example, one team may focus on detection and analysis, while another handles containment and recovery. This model allows for more specialized and efficient responses to incidents.
3. Coordinating team: A coordinating team advises and supports other teams but does not have direct authority over the incident response. This model is often used in large, complex organizations where multiple teams must collaborate during an incident.

From secrets exposure to recovery: A CSIRP in action

To illustrate the importance of an IT incident response plan, let’s walk through a hypothetical scenario: an exposed secret or non-human identity leading to a data breach.

1. Readiness check: The organization has a CSIRP, with a trained incident response team and the necessary tools, such as a purpose-built non-human identity management platform, an SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) system and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions. Regular trainings are conducted to educate employees on best practices to create and manage non-human identities.
2. Threat detected: A developer creates an unsecured S3 bucket on AWS that contains a non-human identity that gives anyone access to certain sensitive documents protected by the non-human identity. A non-human identity security tool detects the exposure as it scans the AWS S3 bucket and triggers an alert.
3. Rapid response: The incident response team quickly isolates the exposed S3 bucket, non-human identity, and workloads it protects to prevent the exposure from spreading. They then begin the decomissioning process by identifying the misconfigured S3 bucket, and the exposed secret. They delete the S3 bucket, and revoke or rotate the secret in the vault tool they use such as Hashicorp Vault. The team also informs all relevant stakeholders of the incident and advises them to take remedial action.
4. Post-incident analysis: After the incident is resolved, the team conducts a post-incident analysis to determine how the misconfigured S3 bucket and exposed secret bypasses the organization’s defenses. They update the CSIRP to include additional protections and enhanced employee training. The incident is documented for future reference, and the team reviews their response to identify any areas for improvement.

A solid Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan (CSIRP) is essential to protect your organization from evolving threats. It is like having a well-stocked first aid kit. You’ve got the playbook for everything from prep work to recovery, but don’t stop there. To further strengthen your incident response efforts, leverage advanced security solutions from Entro. It can make a significant difference. Entro offers a holistic approach to cybersecurity, as it offers comprehensive protection for secrets and cloud services. It safeguards non-human identities such as API keys and tokens, while delivering real-time threat detection and a zero-trust security framework. These capabilities enhance your ability to prevent, detect, and respond to threats more efficiently and ultimately bolster your overall security posture. Combining a robust CSIRP with Entro’s advanced solutions will better safeguard your organization’s digital assets and maintain a resilient defense against emerging cyber threats.