Organizations face many threats today, but not all potential threats are from malicious activities outside the organization. Insider threats are just as significant, if not more significant, of a security risk to companies today. Since 2018, there has been a 40% increase in data breaches caused by company insiders, so they now represent most of them.

Cyber incident response offers a structured approach to respond to, manage and mitigate security incidents in order to limit the potential disruption of attacks. In this blog, we discuss how small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are being impacted by cyber threats, what cyber incident response involves and the steps you can take to protect your business.

Companies engage with a managed detection and response (MDR) provider to help ensure they detect cyber threats before they do any damage. The "response" part of the MDR moniker is key to that effort, making it vital to determine up front exactly what your chosen provider will do when it detects a threat in your environment.

Incident response is a crucial aspect of cybersecurity that involves identifying, containment, eradicating, and recovering from security incidents. It is designed to minimise the impact of security breaches, protect sensitive data, and restore normal operations as quickly as possible. To facilitate a smooth incident response, organisations should create a comprehensive checklist that outlines the necessary steps, resources, and communication channels.

Globally, no organization is immune to attack. Cybersecurity threats are a reality and every organization, anywhere in the world, is a potential target, regardless of location or size. It’s not a question of if, but when an incident will affect your organization. Do you know who you will call for assistance?

No matter how robust your cyber defenses are, there is a high likelihood that your organization will experience a cybersecurity incident—either directly or as a result of a supply chain attack. Implementing a cybersecurity incident response plan can help you effectively address a cyber event, reduce disruptions to your business operations, and ensure compliance with regulations.

After a bank heist, the work begins with specialized teams and plans engaged, allowing for analysis of the event, and from this analysis, the bank can prepare a response to the incident. The incident response may include stricter entry protocols, additional guards inside or around the building, or the installation of metal detectors, ID scanners, and panes of bulletproof glass surrounding the tellers.

It is impressive how explosively the cloud security market has embraced detection and response in recent months. The industry, including both users and vendors, is rapidly acknowledging the complexity of modern cloud attacks. Facilitated by automation and APIs, attacks cannot be effectively countered with traditional solutions that lack context of cloud environments or focus solely on posture.