Despite the depth of implemented protection measures, cyber incidents are bound to happen at some time. An incident analysis process comprises carefully structured and orchestrated operations to determine the incident's root cause and prevent it from reoccurring in the future. Incident analysis is critical to responding and recovering from an adverse cyber event. The following are recommended incident analysis phases:
Detection and observation
IT security teams use various tools, including log management, vulnerability scanners, net-flow analysis tools, and intrusion detection tools, to detect the incident. Detection and observation assist in identifying suspicious activities, analyzing network activities for abnormal events, uncovering weaknesses existing in a network, and identifying tell-tale signs of a particular incident.
Threat intelligence
Detecting an incident is only the first step. However, threat intelligence provides the relevant information that cybersecurity experts require to understand the risks, threats, and vulnerabilities that caused the identified incident. Essentially, threat intelligence first requires an organization to inventory all assets to better understand critical applications and systems connected to a network. Understanding the immediate environment where an incident occurred enables a holistic threat intelligence assessment to reveal potential threats that may have caused the incidence.
Developing a response
You can now develop a response plan to aid quick recovery and faster business continuity based on the detection and observation and threat intelligence feedback. This phase entails identifying new controls that require improvement to thwart the incident. Moreover, developing a response may involve crafting new security policies to prevent a recurrence of the incident.
Lessons learned and documentation.
After implementing appropriate mitigation measures, an organization should document the incident and lessons learned for future reference. Based on the lessons learned, organizations should work tirelessly to tune cybersecurity controls, practices, and measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
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