Everything You Need for a Solid ​Incident Response Plan

In 2023, the average global cost of a data breach reached an all time high of $4.45 million (a 2.25% increase from 2022); U.S.-based businesses suffered most with an average cost of $9.48 million. That said, the full cost of a data breach is more difficult to measure in monetary terms. Reputational damage, legal and regulatory ramifications, operational disruptions, and customer churn and loss are all real consequences that businesses must face in the event of a data breach, and the long-term impact can linger for years. 

While it’s not possible to stop every single cyber attack, businesses that have a robust incident response plan in place are in a much stronger position to mitigate the damage and return to business as normal as quickly as possible. Recovery is so essential that it’s considered one of the core pillars of a cybersecurity framework according to NIST guidelines. 

But what do you need in place for an effective incident response plan, and how do you develop one that will work for the nuances of your organization? Read on to find out. 

The Essential Components of a Post Incident Response Plan 

Prepare with a Written Policy 

The first step to developing a robust incident response plan is to prepare a written policy beforehand. Several things need to be taken into consideration during this phase, not the least of which is the establishment of your governance structure. It’s important to have clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and authorities within the response team. You should appoint a designated incident response coordinator, ensure your team is multidisciplinary, and ensure clear lines of communication to facilitate faster decision making. 

Beyond that, your policy should clearly outline the objectives and scope of your incident response plan. Include the types of incidents it covers, the systems and assets that need to be protected, and the desired outcome of the response process. 

And finally, ensure that your policy accounts for the regular training of response team members. Relevant stakeholders, IT staff, and employees should receive awareness training and have a solid understanding of their roles should an incident occur. 

Preparation and Planning 

Next, you’ll want to ensure you and your team are fully prepared to handle an incident. Start by conducting risk assessments to identify and prioritize potential threats, vulnerabilities, and impact scenarios that could lead to security incidents. 

Then, you’ll want to develop incident response playbooks for different types of breaches. These playbooks should detail the steps to be taken during containment, eradication, recovery, and analysis phases. Include streamlined checklists to ensure nothing gets overlooked. 

Third, be sure to establish communication and escalation procedures to ensure timely notification, reporting, and coordination with internal stakeholders and external partners. 

Detection and Response 

The detection and response phase of your incident response plan involves monitoring systems and networks for signs of security incidents. This often involves tools and techniques such as an intrusion detection system (IDS), SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) solutions, and anomaly detection. When an incident is detected, alerts are generated to prompt further investigation. 

When an alert is triggered, the incident response team will perform triage to assess the severity and scope of the incident. This involves information gathering, analyzing logs, and determining the appropriate response actions. 

​​Containment and Eradication 

After triage, your team should implement containment measures to minimize the damage. This may involve isolation affected systems or networks, blocking malicious traffic, and disconnecting compromised devices from the network. 

Following that, your incident response plan should include some time for your team to conduct forensic analysis. This will allow them to determine the root cause of the incident, eradicate any malicious presence, and restore affected systems to a known good state. 

Recovery and Restoration 

During system restoration, it's important that your incident response plan includes solid workflows and procedures. Restoring affected systems, data, and services to a pre-incident state is the aim, but you’ll want to prioritize recovery efforts based on criticality, impact, and business continuity requirements. 

Once systems have been restored, it’s important to run validation checks and testing to ensure the integrity and functionality of restored assets before returning them to production. 

Post-Incident Analysis and Lessons Learned 

After the incident is resolved is when your post-incident recovery team can learn the most—and help shore up your security measures for the future. Conduct a review to evaluate the effectiveness of response efforts, identify gaps and weaknesses, and document lessons learned. 

The feedback you gather from this post-recovery analysis will help you update and enhance your incident response plan, ensuring your organization is better equipped to handle any future security issues​​. 

Testing 

An ongoing component of any incident response plan is testing. This can be used at any point in your process to gauge your organization’s preparedness—before an incident to give your system and team a chance at rehearsal, and after to correct or streamline processes that were found wanting during an incident. 

Incident Response Tabletop Exercises are critical here. More and more contracts, and cybersecurity oversight regulations, are requiring such tests, which offer proof of your incident response plan. Tabletop exercises simulate an incident and assess the response your team has to a real one. Once complete, you'll have greater insight into how your processes and procedures work as a collective whole. 

Restore Your Systems and Data, and Bolster Your Security, with Inversion6  

Inversion6 is a provider of tailored cybersecurity solutions for businesses, non-profits, and government organizations. We have decades of combined experience in cybersecurity risk management, and our services include SOC, managed XDR, managed MDR, and managed SIEM, alongside various assessment, advisory, and compliance services. We are committed to providing you with the highest level of protection against cyber threats and shoring up your organization’s security with robust incident response plans that restore your systems and your customers’ trust. 

Connect with our team today to get started.