Security teams are often overwhelmed with alerts daily, including false positives, and actions that require attention but might be placed on the back burner. But when alerts start stacking up and aren’t addressed promptly, important security concerns might go unnoticed and these can spiral into a data breach. The time to detect and respond to security incidents should be as short as possible to limit the time an attacker can carry out an attack.
When it comes to cybersecurity, organizations need to be well-prepared for what comes next. Not only are cybercriminals leveraging ever more advanced technology, but the cost of a breach — in terms of cost, reputation, and damage — is on the rise. Mitigating risk requires having a robust incident response plan in place and dedicated team members on standby. Let’s take a closer look.
As cybercrimes and security breaches become more sophisticated, data protection strategies have become more important to business survival. A critical element in an organization’s ability to effectively handle these incidents is to reduce downtime and minimize damage. This is where an effective incident response and disaster recovery plan comes into play.
The Center for Internet Security (CIS) offers Critical Security Controls (CSCs) that help organizations improve cybersecurity. CIS CSC 17 covers incident response and management. (In earlier versions of the CIS controls, handling of security incidents was covered in Control 19.) CIS CSC 17 focuses on how to develop a plan for responding to attacks and other security incidents, including the importance of defining clear roles for those responsible for the various tasks involved.
A cybersecurity Incident Response Plan (CSIRP) is the guiding light that grounds you during the emotional hurricane that follows a cyberattack. A CSIRP helps security teams minimize the impact of active cyber threats and outline mitigation strategies to prevent the same types of incidents from happening again. But as the complexity of cyberattacks increases, so too should the strategies that prevent them.
Taking proactive measures is critical to any aspect of a strong cybersecurity strategy. And today, the need for a robust incident response plan has never been greater. As more and more companies embrace remote work, we see an influx of personal devices on the corporate network. As a result, the potential attack surface expands while endpoint visibility is significantly reduced.
