- hello@group8.co
- 12 Marina View, Singapore
There’s almost no way to escape the threat of cybersecurity incidents. With the limitless capabilities of the internet, cybercriminals are constantly poised and ready to exploit vulnerabilities. For this reason, cybersecurity solutions in Singapore have become more vital than ever for organisations.
While an effective incident response plan can stop disruption from spiralling into a disaster, it is just as essential to build or engage an efficient team to carry it out. With that, here’s a quick look at how to get started in forming your cyber incident response team today.
A cyber incident response team comprises IT professionals whose primary duty is to prepare for and react to any cyber-related organisational emergency. Their responsibility primarily involves planning for and responding to IT incidents, such as cyberattacks, system failures, and data breaches.
In essence, an excellent cyber incident response team is expected to develop proactive incident response plans, enforce the organisation's security policies, and identify and resolve system vulnerabilities.
The primary aim of a cyber incident response team is to reduce, control and monitor the damage that may result from a cybersecurity incident. This way, they enable the organisation to respond and recover from the cybersecurity incident as soon as it is noticed. In turn, a cybersecurity incident’s organised and structured handling ensures minimal impact on an organisation’s stakeholders and customers.
The preparation stage is the workhorse of an incident response team process and is where the cyber incident response team receives adequate training and practice to handle potential threats. An organisation can either designate an incident response handler within the house or appoint a third-party response provider.
Identifying the most critical assets or crown jewels that the business needs to maintain operational security forms an integral part of this phase. It is also where the team is expected to ensure that organisational policies and network security goals are aligned with the organisation's overall infrastructure.
At this stage, it is crucial to develop and undergo drill scenarios, regular penetration tests and simulated data breaches to evaluate the preparedness of the team and its response strategy — the more prepared the team is, the less space for critical mistakes.
Often considered as one of the most challenging parts of incident response, the detection and analysis stage is when the team determines whether the organisation has been breached or if any of its systems have been compromised by checking incidents against common threats, precursors and indicators.
In the case where a breach is detected, the team should address the following:
- How was the incident discovered?It is essential for the team to thoroughly document everything in this phase, including a summary of the incident, indicators of the incident, actions taken during the incident, and forensic copies of affected systems.
This phase’s objective is to mitigate damage, lessen the impact, and prevent the attack from causing further damage by isolating the affected systems. It is typically done by disconnecting the compromised networks, such as rerouting or filtering the network traffic and closing the vulnerable ports and servers.
After the incident has been successfully contained, the team should then identify and eliminate the root cause of the issue. It involves determining and eliminating all the affected systems from production, securely removing malware and disabling breach user accounts.
How the team handles a cybersecurity breach and what it has learned from it are fundamental factors in determining the success of an incident response strategy. In this phase, the team members must gather, and review and analyse their response activities and the steps they have taken to improve future efforts and further develop their security posture.
This phase is essentially about learning from the attack to strengthen your defence, prevent another breach, and discuss ways to handle any future threats better.
Cybersecurity incidents can occur anytime. In fact, a study has shown that a cyberattack happens every 39 seconds on average. As such, the members of an incident response team need to remain broadly available around the clock to ensure an efficient, almost-immediate response time.
Your cyber incident response team should include IT and cybersecurity professionals and key leaders who will serve as communication mediums between the team and executive members of the organisation. These key members will ensure that authority is maintained at all times to lead an organised team to respond efficiently, especially in a breach where an organised structure is necessary. Furthermore, the key leaders will present your team with authorised backing and appropriate funding where necessary.
Amidst the stress that comes with incident response work, being constantly on-call can take a toll on your team physically and mentally. As such, it is crucial to monitor and support your personnel at all times to maintain heightened team morale and consistent output of your cyber incident response.
It is also essential to provide the team members with opportunities for growth and learning, such as relevant cybersecurity workshops and certifications. You could facilitate bonding activities from time to time to ensure improved team communication.
Furthermore, you may consider outsourcing some of the incident response activities to a trusted cybersecurity service provider to reduce the heavy workload and stress of the in-house team. Numerous cybersecurity companies offer reliable cybersecurity services in Singapore to provide organisations with the ease, security, and support they need.
Having a well-equipped and ready-to-go incident response team is vital for any organisation. Prevention is better than cure, and as such, it is always essential to stay ahead of cyber attackers.
At GROUP8, we recognise the necessity of cybersecurity solutions to pre-empt attacks and implement proper defence and response measures — even before an actual incident that requires response arises. Our proactive team works with offensive cybersecurity research to keep your organisation ready for threats you can’t prevent and ensure that your assets are always in safe hands.