“Responding quickly and effectively to a cybersecurity incident is key to being able to address security breaches and other incidents that could be catastrophic and put the company at significant risk.”
Currently, cybersecurity has become a topic of vital importance. Cyber attacks can affect businesses, governments, and individuals alike, causing financial damage, data loss, and reputational damage.
Cybercriminals, in a nutshell, seek to exploit vulnerabilities in systems and networks to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information.
This is why as cyber threats evolve and become more sophisticated, the ability to act quickly and in a coordinated manner has become a determining factor in minimizing damage and protecting digital assets.
“Having an Incident Response Plan is essential to have clear instructions to help the company’s IT staff detect, respond and recover from a problem. Responding on time helps maintain business continuity and generate greater confidence in customers. This type of measure addresses issues such as service interruptions, cybercrime or data loss. Its objective is to be able to act immediately to minimize damage and make the company more resilient against attacks,” he explains in an interview for computer today Javier Sevillano, director of the Entelgy Innotec Security Security Operations Center.
It is clear that the strategy of responding quickly to a cybersecurity incident has become crucial, but what are the steps to follow in the event of any type of attack? Can they really be prevented? And are companies prepared to deal with cybersecurity problems?
“The person in charge of this matter is the Computer Security Incident Response Team, CSIRT”
The premise that “time is money” applies especially in the field of cybersecurity. Attackers do not wait and can cause enormous damage in a matter of minutes or hours. Therefore, a quick response can mean the difference between a minor disruption and a catastrophic security breach.
The speed with which a threat is detected and contained can limit its spread and minimize the resulting damage. This includes early identification of security breaches, taking compromised systems offline, and implementing countermeasures.
To achieve an effective response to a cybersecurity incident, it is essential to have a clear and well-structured action plan. This defines the roles and responsibilities of the team members, establishes the steps to follow and describes how you will communicate both internally and externally.
“First, the Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan must be prepared. It is based on obtaining information and ordering it to develop and document our incident response policy. In this sense, it will be necessary to evaluate the sensitivity and value of the data and information that must be protected”, lists Javier Sevillano.
Behind this, A detection and analysis stage will be necessary for monitoring events, for detection and alerting, and for reporting potential problems.
It is followed by a third step in which “it is necessary to detect if the data has been stolen or corrupted and assess the risk, as well as eliminate infected data or replace technology and immediately contain systems, networks and data stores to reduce the incident and to isolate it. All the information, devices and systems seized must be kept in custody for later analysis”, continues the expert.
“Finally, the time for recovery and follow-up arrives. In this stage, the systems are restored to the previous state, ensuring the availability, integrity and confidentiality of the data and the systems. In addition, we cannot forget to promote preventive actions to anticipation mode based on the lessons learned. The Incident Response Plan has to be reviewed for continuous improvement,” he concludes.
Preparation is also key– Organizations should regularly practice incident simulation exercises to ensure that the security team is familiar with procedures and can act quickly under pressure.
“Phishing, ransomware attacks, and denial of service (DDoS) attacks are three of the most recurring cyber threats today, so they should always be in the crosshairs of any cybersecurity expert and of any company, regardless of its sector. However, the challenges in responding to these attacks are similar to those of almost any other and very common”, explains the expert.
In conclusion, organizations should be prepared with well-defined incident response plans and practice regularly to ensure your security team is ready to act in the event of an attack.
“Time is running against the defender. That is why it is so important to have prevention systems and an Incident Response Plan in continuous evaluation, adaptation and change. Anticipating will always be the key to giving a good response to an incident and having part of the work done. Afterwards, having the best team of professionals, with experience, technique and dedication, will be decisive in making the best combination between urgency and exhaustive investigation”, says Javier Sevillano.