Incident response (IR) is not a one-size-fits-all process and can vary significantly depending on the framework you choose to follow. Understanding these differences and selecting the appropriate framework is essential for effective incident management. This article delves into the main incident response frameworks, detailing their processes, key differences, and guidance on how to choose the best framework for your organization.
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Dissecting the General Steps of Incident Response
1. Preparation
Objective: To establish and maintain an incident response capability that enables efficient and effective response to security incidents.
Key Activities:
Policy and Procedure Development: Develop and document incident response policies, plans, and procedures. These should outline roles, responsibilities, and actions to take during an incident.
Incident Response Team (IRT) Formation: Assemble a team with diverse skills, including network security, forensics, legal, and public relations. Ensure they have clear roles and responsibilities.
Training and Awareness: Conduct regular training and simulation exercises (e.g., tabletop exercises, red team/blue team exercises) to ensure team readiness. Raise awareness among all employees about their role in incident response.
Tools and Resources: Equip the IRT with necessary tools and resources such as forensic software, network monitoring tools, communication tools, and documentation templates.
Communication Plan: Develop a communication strategy for internal and external stakeholders, ensuring that accurate and timely information is shared during an incident.
Challenges:
Ensuring all team members are adequately trained and familiar with their roles.
Keeping the incident response plan up to date with evolving threats and organizational changes.
How to Draw Up an Incident Response Policy: An Actionable Checklist for Cybersecurity Professionals
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2. Detection and Analysis
Objective: To identify and understand the nature, scope, and impact of potential security incidents.
Key Activities:
Monitoring and Logging: Implement continuous monitoring and logging of network traffic, system activity, and user behavior to detect anomalies and suspicious activities.
Incident Identification: Use intrusion detection systems (IDS), security information and event management (SIEM) systems, and threat intelligence feeds to identify potential incidents.
Triage: Prioritize incidents based on severity, impact, and potential for escalation. This involves classifying incidents and assigning them to appropriate response teams.
Investigation: Conduct a detailed analysis to determine the root cause, entry point, and scope of the incident. This includes examining logs, network traffic, and affected systems.
Documentation: Record all findings, decisions, and actions taken during the analysis phase for future reference and improvement of the incident response process.
Challenges:
Differentiating between false positives and actual incidents.
Gathering sufficient and accurate information for thorough analysis.
3. Containment
Objective: To limit the spread and impact of the incident.
Key Activities:
Short-Term Containment: Implement immediate measures to limit the impact of the incident, such as isolating affected systems, blocking malicious IP addresses, or disabling compromised accounts.
Long-Term Containment: Develop and implement strategies to maintain containment while identifying and eradicating the root cause. This might involve setting up additional monitoring or deploying patches.
Challenges:
Balancing the need for swift action with the need for careful analysis to avoid data loss or further damage.
Ensuring that containment measures do not disrupt normal business operations excessively.
4. Eradication
Objective: To remove the root cause of the incident and ensure that the threat is fully neutralized.
Key Activities:
Root Cause Removal: Identify and remove the cause of the incident, such as malware, unauthorized access, or vulnerabilities.
System Hardening: Apply security patches, reconfigure systems, and strengthen security controls to prevent recurrence of the incident.
Challenges:
Ensuring comprehensive eradication to prevent reinfection or reoccurrence.
Verifying that all affected systems are clean and free of any remnants of the incident.
5. Recovery
Objective: To restore affected systems and services to normal operation while ensuring that the threat has been completely neutralized.
Key Activities:
System Restoration: Restore affected systems to normal operation using backups or clean installs. Ensure that no traces of the incident remain.
Validation: Verify that systems are functioning correctly and securely. Conduct additional monitoring to ensure that the threat has been fully eradicated.
Business Continuity: Ensure that business operations are restored with minimal disruption and that all critical services are back online.
Challenges:
Ensuring that restored systems are fully secure and functional.
Minimizing downtime and disruption to business operations.
6. Post-Incident Activity
Objective: To review and improve the incident response process and strengthen organizational security posture.
Key Activities:
Post-Mortem Analysis: Conduct a thorough review of the incident, documenting what happened, how it was detected, how it was handled, and what the outcomes were.
Lessons Learned: Identify lessons from the incident and incorporate them into policies, procedures, and training programs. This may involve updating the incident response plan, improving detection mechanisms, or enhancing security controls.
Reporting: Prepare detailed reports for various stakeholders, including senior management, legal, and regulatory bodies. Ensure that reports are clear, accurate, and actionable.
Policy and Procedure Updates: Revise and update incident response policies and procedures based on the findings of the post-mortem analysis.
Training and Awareness: Use insights gained from the incident to improve training programs and increase overall security awareness within the organization.
Challenges:
Ensuring that all relevant information is captured and analyzed.
Effectively communicating lessons learned to all stakeholders and ensuring they are implemented.
IR Steps by Incident Response Framework
Several established frameworks guide incident response processes. Here are the most prominent ones:
NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Special Publication 800-61
SANS Institute Incident Handler’s Handbook
ISO/IEC 27035
MITRE ATT&CK
| NIST | SANS | ISO/IEC | Mitre |
|---|---|---|---|
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Key Differences Between Frameworks
While these frameworks share common themes, they differ in a few small ways:
Granularity: SANS and MITRE offer more granular steps, while NIST combines some phases (e.g., containment, eradication, and recovery).
Focus: NIST emphasizes detection and analysis, dedicating a significant portion of its guidance to these areas. SANS and MITRE place equal emphasis on all phases.
Continuous Improvement: ISO/IEC 27035 and SANS explicitly include a "Lessons Learned" phase, emphasizing the cyclical nature of incident response.
Scope: ISO/IEC 27035 takes a broader approach, incorporating information security incident management into the overall information security management system.
Flexibility: MITRE's framework is designed to be more flexible and adaptable to various types of incidents and organizational structures.
Choosing the Right Framework
Selecting an appropriate IR framework depends on several factors:
Regulatory Requirements: Some industries may require adherence to specific frameworks.
Organizational Structure: Larger organizations might benefit from the more detailed SANS or MITRE frameworks, while smaller teams might prefer NIST's concise approach.
Incident Types: If your organization faces a wide variety of incidents, MITRE's flexible framework might be more suitable.
Organizational Needs and Context: Government agencies might prefer NIST due to its alignment with federal guidelines. Private sector entities may find SANS more practical.
Integration with Existing Processes: Consider how well each framework aligns with your current security operations and overall information security management system.
Team Expertise: More experienced teams might prefer the flexibility of MITRE, while teams new to formal IR processes might benefit from NIST's structured approach.
Continuous Improvement Focus: If your organization prioritizes ongoing refinement of IR processes, frameworks with explicit "Lessons Learned" phases like SANS or ISO/IEC 27035 might be preferable.
How Wiz supports incident response in the cloud
No matter the framework you choose to follow, Wiz can help you tackle even the most intricate cloud-based incident response requirements. With offers features designed to streamline incident response processes in cloud environments, such as:
Cloud Detection and Response (CDR): This is the foundation for Wiz's incident response capabilities, providing real-time threat detection, investigation, and response actions.
Security Graph: A visual representation of cloud infrastructure, helping identify relationships between resources and potential attack paths.
Automated Response Playbooks: Pre-built and customizable playbooks for automating routine incident response tasks.
Root Cause Analysis: Identifies the underlying cause of an incident to facilitate effective remediation.
Blast Radius Assessment: Evaluates the potential impact of a security breach to prioritize response actions.
Learn why security operations team rely on Wiz to help them proactively detect and respond to unfolding cloud threats.
