In cybersecurity, triage is a cyber incident response approach to identifying, prioritizing, and resolving cybersecurity attacks, threats, and damages within a network. When simultaneous and multiple attacks occur, an IT security team must prioritize which system or device to assess in order to mitigate, remediate, and salvage important devices and data from further damage.

A well-thought-out incident response plan is no longer recommended – it’s critical. With the rate that cyber attacks are increasing – putting customer privacy at risk and forcing some businesses to close – it’s never been more important to educate your team on the risks, and help prepare your organization for the worst case scenario.

Imagine a nightmare where you are in a dark tunnel and every minute without reaching the light costs a fortune. You try everything to find the exit, but there is nothing you can do. The incarnation of these nightmares is called “Major Incidents” in the cyber security field. These nightmares are likely to become a reality for managers of many organizations today, where companies manage almost all their business processes with digital solutions.

A cyber attack can happen to businesses of any size or structure. In order to protect your data and your systems, it is important to have a plan in place. This means having protocols in place for dealing with a cyber threat, and making sure all of your employees are aware of the plan and know what to do if an attack occurs. In this blog post, we will discuss the importance of incident response planning and how you can secure a structure that is right for your business.

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.

In the first blog of our two-part incident response series, we explained how your organization can jump-start its incident response. In this second part, we’ll focus on the essential elements of an incident response plan—a critical factor for any company trying to recover from an incident quickly and confidently.

The FBI published their 2021 Internet Crime Report with data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). This report shows that Business Email Compromise (BEC) / Email Account Compromise (EAC) attacks far exceed the volume and losses of Ransomware attacks. Organizations need to be prepared and know who they are going to call when they experience BEC/EAC, as well as ransomware, or other high-severity incidents.

Egnyte’s recent independent cybersecurity study found that only 64% of organizations had incident response plans. Without such plans, companies are extremely susceptible to potential cyber-attacks, and the stark business reality is that they take much longer to recover. Unfortunately, there are daily examples of major data breaches where a particular company’s incident response could have been managed more effectively.

Each quarter, Tetra Defense, an Arctic Wolf company, collects and analyzes data and insights from its incident response engagements in the United States. These statistics are a vital part of assessing the cyber threat landscape at large and are intended to guide underwriting strategies, loss prevention programs, broker advisement, and client security priorities.

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.