Incident response procedures: What you need to know for Security+

As technology evolves, so do the security risks we face. Data breaches and cyberattacks are an everyday part of our lives, and businesses need to accept the fact that at some point they’ll have to deal with a security threat. If you’re a business owner, having an incident response plan in place is crucial, as it helps you and your team stay organized amidst the chaos of the attack and lets you contain it before it becomes too damaging.

You need an action plan for everything from intrusions, cyber-theft, denial of service, fire, floods and other security-related events. That's why incident response is an important concept on the CompTIA Security+ exam. Incident response is primarily covered under two of the 28 objectives covered across the Security+ exam domains:

• Objective 4.4: Explain appropriate incident response activities.
• Objective 5.1: Summarize elements of effective security governance.

For more information on the Security+ exam, download our free Security+ ebook or learn more about Infosec's Security+ Training Boot Camp.

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Considerations for creating an incident response plan

A good incident response plan should help you deal with not just one but a vast array of crises that could potentially hurt your company. Your plan should describe each possible situation and outline the steps that need to be taken to limit the damage caused.

One effective way businesses can take preemptive action is by getting their core response team certified. A Security+ certification trains each individual to anticipate security risks and prevent them before they occur. In case an incident does occur, they will be prepared to resolve a wide variety of security issues.

Before putting together an incident response plan for your business, you need to consider and figure out certain things.

• Categorizing and documenting incidents: Having an incident classification structure in place is crucial to enabling swift identification and remediation of incidents. Classify any potential risks according to a category, type and severity. Remember to record and analyze each incident that does occur; this will also help refine your classification model, and help contain similar future incidents efficiently.
• Roles and responsibilities: As soon as an incident occurs, your team needs to spring into action. It’s crucial that you involve the right people and that they know exactly what their roles and responsibilities are within the incident response plan.
• Reporting and escalation: Being well prepared is half the battle won. Your team should have a strong plan with a comprehensive checklist to fall back on if things go south. Think of it like a fire drill — once each team member knows exactly what they must do and who they should contact in each situation, all incidents will be swiftly addressed and escalated, minimizing damage when a real threat strikes.
• Cyber incident response teams: The core cyber incident response team needs a very specific set of skills to combat each incident deftly. Their knowledge and expertise should span both technical and non-technical areas. It’s important to gauge whether your internal team has all the needed skills or if it makes sense to have an external team on standby.
• Exercise: All aspects of your incident response plan should be regularly tested. This can be done through tabletop exercises that simulate real-world incidents. How your team performs in these exercises can be used to weed out loopholes and refine your plan.

6 steps of an incident response process

When developing an incident response plan, six common stages of incident response need to be considered. Incident response is not a standalone action; it’s a process made up of several procedures. The aim is to take a strategically planned approach to any security breach.

Every plan should cover the following six steps to effectively cover every base and address the wide range of potential security threats.

1. Preparation

Preparation is key. Here are a few ways to prepare for your next incident.

• Create and catalog incident response policies: Establish policies and procedures for incident response management.
• Define clear communication channels: Having a seamless line of communication is crucial both during and after an incident. Work out the most efficient communication channels and guidelines for your team.
• Train your team: Ensure that all members of your incident response team are sufficiently trained and equipped to make quick decisions. Each team is only as good as its plan because preparation is key to effective incident response.
• Review threat intelligence feeds: Regularly review and analyze your threat intelligence feeds for any potential future threats.
• Regularly update your policies: Have a plan to review and update your incident response policies annually to stay up-to-date with the threats.

2. Identification

When you become aware that an incident has occurred, it’s important to answer a few crucial questions before doing anything else. What kind of incident has occurred? Has any data been leaked or lost? What is the level of severity? This will help you choose the best course of action according to your incident response process.

The main emphasis of this phase is on detecting and reporting any potential security threats.

• Observe: Train your team to always watch for anything that seems even mildly suspicious.
• Detect: Once an incident is detected, it must be escalated through the predefined channels.
• Alert: Through the initial findings, the threat needs to be analyzed and then categorized based on its severity.

3. Containment

This step aims to forcefully stop the threat and prevent any further damage. Various ways can be used to achieve this, such as deploying patches, stopping the outbound communication from the infected machine and powering off the servers. This phase is critical, and the strategy for containment depends totally on what is found during the identification phase.

• Coordinated shutdown: After identifying all the infected systems, turn them off together if doing so is safe.
• Erase and reboot: Format all infected devices, change all passwords, update and patch all systems and review remote access protocols.
• Keep the evidence: Be sure to back up all your logs and other evidence related to the incident.

4. Eradication

After containing the incident, it’s time to eliminate the cause of the breach. This could be malicious code or any other threat that led to the incident.

After a thorough forensic analysis, the malware must be removed, and all the weak points in the system must be patched and updated. Whether your team does this or you outsource it to a third party, this step needs to be done thoroughly so that no trace of the threat remains within the system.

5. Recovery

After the incident has been contained, it’s important to restore all your affected systems and services as soon as possible. But while trying to get things back up and running, continue monitoring all your activity to ensure that the problem has been fully resolved and the threat has been erased from your network.

• Patch and test: Ensure all systems have been tested after being restored.
• Monitoring: Decide how long the system needs to be closely monitored post-incident for the same threat.
• Identify tools: Are there any tools that can help ensure a similar incident doesn’t reoccur?

6. Lessons learned

This is one of the most important yet commonly overlooked steps of the incident response process. Now that you’ve successfully overcome the threat, the next step is to figure out how you can do an even better job the next time by avoiding any mistakes that were made this time. All information must be documented for future reference.

• Fill out the incident report. Detailing the minutes of the incident will help fine-tune your incident response plan and can be used to improve it.
• Keep your eyes open: Closely monitor all activities post-incident in case the threat resurfaces.
• Identify weak points: Hold a post-incident meeting with your team to identify any incident response loopholes that need to be fixed

Incident response takeaways

The lessons you learn from the real incident will help fortify your systems against future attacks. But one doesn’t have to wait for a security incident to occur to learn how to handle each situation. Certification exams like CompTIA Security+ validate the expertise of cybersecurity professionals in areas like incident response, making them more valuable to organizations and hiring manager.

If you work in cybersecurity, chances are that at some point you'll have to deal with a data breach or other incident. It’s crucial to be prepared. 

For more on the Security+ certification, view our Security+ certification hub.