Why Incident Response Is Essential to Your Cyber Resilience Strategy

Robust cyber resilience strategies should be a top priority for every organization, regardless of its size or industry. The overall goal of cyber resilience is to reduce the impact of cyber incidents via a two-pronged approach: preparation (limiting access and minimizing the impact of the incident itself) and recovery (being prepared to recover quickly when data or services are compromised).

At the heart of cyber resilience preparation is incident response (IR). Incident response is a unique part of any successful cybersecurity program, as it’s all about preparing teams to handle cybersecurity events when they occur. The success of an IR program is dependent on how quickly your teams can understand and respond to incidents within your environment before they cause greater impacts. When it comes to incident response, every minute counts.

What is it that makes incident response more effective in the world of cyber resilience? It’s all about preparation. A mature incident response program that includes a well-crafted incident response plan (IRP) at its core can significantly reduce the impact of cyber incidents and ensure quick recovery when data or services become unavailable.

Given the ongoing rise of ransomware as a lucrative form of attack, swift and effective response is more important than ever. In these scenarios, organizations with an established IRP can quickly restore operations and minimize the risk of facing costly ransom payments, saving valuable time and resources in the process.

An effective IRP also establishes protocols and procedures to detect, investigate and mitigate cyber incidents in real time. The primary goal of an IRP is to minimize the impact of cyber incidents and restore normal operations as quickly as possible. This involves a well-coordinated effort that includes not only the IT department but also legal, communications and executive teams to ensure that all facets of a cyber incident are handled capably.

As cyber threats continue to evolve, regular updates and revisions to the IRP are crucial to address emerging risks and leverage new defensive technologies. Proactive planning and frequent drills can help to significantly reduce response times and improve the overall efficiency of managing cyber threats.

A comprehensive and well-executed IRP directly contributes to strengthening cyber resilience by clearly defining roles and responsibilities while establishing pre-determined actions for specific scenarios (like ransomware attacks). It also ensures that actions like isolating threats are automatic, minimizing the potential impact of an incident.

However, developing an effective IRP does not happen overnight. Building an IR program that minimizes the impact of cyber threats requires attention to three key components:

1. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Creating an incident response team first involves developing clear policies and procedures that will guide the incident response process. This is where a number of hypothetical questions will need to be answered.
   
   For example, the first indication of an incident may be an automated alert received by your IT team. Who gets this alert? Who does this person contact after receiving that alert? At which point will a third party need to be engaged? When an IRP is working well, all of these steps should be automatic.
   
   Another set of important steps are securing executive sponsorship and establishing a clear communication plan to be used when an incident occurs. Performing a maturity assessment, gap analysis and preferably a penetration test will also help identify your organization’s:
   
   
   • Most valuable and most vulnerable assets
   • Cybersecurity insurance requirements related to incident response
   • Compliance and reporting requirements
     
     
2. Playbooks for specific scenarios and scenario types. It’s likely that when a security incident occurs, your organization will respond differently depending on the scenario. Establishing different playbooks for specific scenarios will help delineate which plans and steps take precedence over others based on the specific threat your organization is facing.
   
   For example, a scenario in which a malicious actor has tried to engineer a fraudulent payment by email and impersonation will probably require a different set of steps than a scenario where someone detects the early signs of a ransomware attack. Or, an organization in the manufacturing industry may be more focused on detecting threats within their operational technology (OT) than they are their IT infrastructure.
   
   No two scenarios are alike for every business, so it’s essential to prepare to isolate specific threats during security incidents that are most relevant to your industry. Monitoring tools and technologies are essential in identifying incidents in their early stages to quickly detect and identify any anomalies or breaches. Clear criteria should be established to determine what constitutes an “incident” and facilitate swift decision-making.
   
   
3. Ongoing practice and training for all involved. Organizations and threats constantly evolve, so regular reviews of your incident response plan and playbooks are key to optimization. Exercises and reviews will further highlight successes and areas for improvement, feeding back into the preparation phase to enhance future incident response plans. Regular debriefings and updates to your IRP based on lessons learned will help ensure continuous improvement and adaptation to evolving threats.
   
   How often should your IRP be put to the test? Ideally, running a tabletop exercise every six months is a good cadence, as it allows your organization to ensure that your staff is always trained within a one-year period. Your IRP should be a living document that evolves as technologies (like SIEM or orchestration platforms, for example) are added or changed.
   
   These tabletop exercises will also help set predetermined boundaries between steps your organization intends to keep as in-house capabilities and which services may need to be outsourced to a third-party. After conducting a tabletop exercise for example, your organization may find that you have the expertise to do your own tier one monitoring and response.
   

A mature IR program not only limits the impact of ongoing incidents but also facilitates rapid recovery and business continuity post-event, minimizing downtime and associated costs. This is in line with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) IR Cycle that underscores both pre- and post-event actions. Maintaining a comprehensive IRP can also potentially reduce insurance premiums and improve your organization's overall risk profile.

But while this all sounds great on paper, how can organizations recoup the cost of implementing and maintaining an incident response program? In general, incident response programs are low-cost services that can yield a high return on investment.

According to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2023 report,  the global average cost of a data breach is $ 4.45 million. While organizations of every size and industry are vulnerable to breaches, the severity of these breaches and the costs to remediate them can vary. In the United States specifically, the average cost of a data breach in 2023 was $9.48 million.

Organizations with high levels of IR planning and testing save an average of $1.5 million compared to organizations without an IR team who experience a breach. Though the upfront price of keeping a team on retainer for regularly testing IR capabilities and conducting tabletop exercises may seem steep at first, it’s clear that the cost of preparing for a cyber incident will always be substantially less than the cost of recovery.

As technology evolves at breakneck speed, organizations must remain vigilant in updating their IRPs regularly. Any changes or updates made to the company's infrastructure should trigger an immediate review of the existing plan to ensure continued effectiveness.

The “gold standard” of assessing your organization’s response to cyber incidents is with a threat and vulnerability management tactic like red teaming exercises. During these simulated exercises, a team of “attackers” will attempt to infiltrate your systems and networks. These exercises can be used not only to assess how well your organization monitors, detects and responds to an incident, but also how quickly it can eject the attackers as well.  From there, your organization can tune and tweak your technology platforms, refining your defenses and processes along the way.

A qualified technology partner with deep expertise in security, threat management and incident response should be able to help your organization design, test and maintain an IR program from initial alert through containment, eradication and recovery. Even better, a partner like CDW with a complete ecosystem of technology services and products can ensure that your organization has the resources it needs to prepare for, respond to and recover from cyber incidents of all kinds.