Incident Response Services

How Cybersecurity Incident Response Plans Operate

The best incident response plans are the ones that take an active stance against cyberthreats. Unfortunately, an estimated 77 percent of organizations lack an incident response plan.

Of the businesses that do have incident response processes in place, very few have tested or know how their response plan operates. In a study by IBM Resilient, 54 percent of businesses with a formalized incident response plan did not test it regularly.

It’s a fact that incident response isn’t just a security concern – it’s a business concern. A successful incident response plan follows a life cycle of developing new strategies, improving current practices, and updating the existing plan. Preventing a future cybersecurity incident relies on avoiding complacency within a formal incident response plan.

When businesses prioritize their cybersecurity posture, they significantly reduce the risk of a successful breach, and in the case that one does occur, they are better prepared to handle the situation.

Incident Response Steps

Incident response services need to be multifaceted and comprehensive – whether that is creating an incident response plan or answering an emergency breach.

At CDG, we offer experienced incident response teams to provide clients with thorough, personalized care to match their exact systems, technologies, and personnel.

When helping craft a plan, six basic elements are addressed:

1. Preparation:
   In this beginning phase, the responsibilities and roles of team members are clearly defined and cemented. Drills and scenarios are planned out for response testing. Employee training is prioritized, and all response plan components (tools, hardware, etc.) must be properly funded.
2. Identification:
   This piece of an incident response plan is concerned with determining the root cause of the breach. Questions that need to be answered include where the point of entry was and what data or information has been compromised.
3. Containment:
   The containment phase is tasked with knowing how to isolate the vector that caused the breach and limiting harm from other network or system areas.
4. Eradication:
   Once the issue has been controlled, security professionals must eliminate the infecting malware or virus from the environment. Then, the systems should be patched and updated to prevent future breaches.
5. Recovery:
   This phase looks to restore business operations and get workflows back on track. Here is when any possible data restoration will be attempted.
6. Lessons Learned:
   The last phase of an incident response plan culminates in a detailed analysis of the breach. This reporting looks to break down how the attack occurred, what vulnerabilities made it possible, how to prevent future occurrences, etc.

CDG’s personalized holistic approach to cybersecurity incident response services provides organizations with an in-depth and dependable solution to stop and tackle digital threats. With extensive incident response experience, we efficiently and effectively protect and strengthen a business’s cyberenvironment. Partnering with an effective incident response team like CDG best positions an organization to remain secure and agile in the face of future incidents.