In this section of the course,
we are going to discuss incident response.
The incident response section of the course
focuses on Domain 1, governance, risk and compliance,
and Domain 4, security operations,
specifically objectives, 1.2 and 4.4.
Objective 1.2 states that given a set
of organizational security requirements,
you must be able to perform risk management activities.
Objective 4.4 states that given a scenario,
you must be able to analyze data and artifacts
in support of incident response activities.
Effective incident response minimizes the impact
of security breaches and ensures swift recovery.
In order to be effective,
organizations must regularly conduct preparedness exercises
to simulate potential incidents.
Preparedness exercises help teams
practice and refine their response strategies.
Then, when an actual event occurs,
immediate and coordinated action to contain the threat
and mitigate damage can occur.
Following that, post-incident analysis,
including attribution and root cause identification
helps the organization understand who was responsible
and how the breach occurred.
As we go through this section,
we will cover many topics related to incident response,
including preparedness exercises, immediate response,
event response, attribution and root cause analysis.
First, let's look at preparedness exercises.
Preparedness exercises are activities designed to evaluate
and improve an organization's readiness
to handle security incidents.
Preparedness exercise types include,
tabletop, walkthrough, parallel and simulation exercises.
Tabletop exercises are a discussion-based activity.
During a tabletop exercise,
team members are led through a scenario
and talk through their responses
without performing any actual actions
and without the pressure of time.
Next, in a walkthrough exercise, the team members review
and practice specific procedures for incident response,
while still low pressure,
a walkthrough is more hands-on than a tabletop exercise.
Next, parallel exercises simulate incidents
alongside normal operations
to assess how the response integrates
with day-to-day activities.
In parallel exercises,
response actions are not taken on the production network,
but may be taken in a staging environment
which parallels the production network.
Next, simulations replicate real-world attack scenarios,
requiring teams to respond as if the threat were real.
Simulations and subsequent responses may occur
on the production network.
For example, an organization might run a simulation
of a phishing attack where employees receive realistic
but simulated phishing email.
The incident response team is tasked
with identifying the threat containing any potential damage
and preventing further access in real time.
By simulating a real-world scenario,
the organization can better prepare
for actual phishing attacks.
Next, we will explore immediate response.
Immediate response includes the rapid actions
taken to contain and mitigate a security incident
as soon as it is detected.
Immediate response concepts include,
crisis management and threat response.
Crisis management involves collaborating
with key stakeholders to maintain trust
and transparency throughout the incident,
ensuring that all parties understand
the organization's response efforts.
Crisis management requires careful planning
and execution of recovery strategies
to protect the organization's reputation
and avoid long-term disruptions to operation.
Threat response, on the other hand, involves rapid detection
and investigation of the issue,
often using specialized tools
and teams to assess the situation.
After containing the threat,
response efforts focus on remediation,
including fixing vulnerabilities,
restoring affected systems,
and reinforcing defenses to prevent future incidents.
For example, during a ransomware attack,
the security team may immediately isolate affected systems
to prevent the malware from spreading across the network.
Furthermore, they may disconnect compromised machines
from the network, disable remote access
and shut down affected servers.
Simultaneously, crisis management could be activated
to coordinate internal communications,
informing executives and employees of the situation
and outlining steps being taken to address it.
Externally, the team could engage with customers, partners,
and media to manage the flow of information,
ensuring transparency while avoiding panic.
After that, we will look at event response.
Event response includes the actions taken to handle,
investigate, and mitigate a security incident
after it has been detected and contained.
Event response concepts include timeline reconstruction,
data recovery, and extraction, and data breach response.
Timeline reconstruction involves piecing together
the sequence of events
leading up to and during the incident.
Timeline reconstruction helps the team identify
exploited vulnerabilities and the path of the attack.
Data recovery and extraction focuses on restoring
lost or compromised data
and extracting critical information for analysis.
Breach response encompasses the broader steps
of mitigating damage, securing systems,
and ensuring compliance with legal
and regulatory requirements.
Effective breach response minimizes operational impact
and protects the organization from legal
and financial repercussions.
For example, after a data breach,
the security team might reconstruct the timeline of events
to determine how the breach occurred
and which systems were affected.
The reconstruction process helps pinpoint
the exact entry point of the attack
and uncovers exploited weaknesses in security controls.
Simultaneously, they may work on data recovery
to restore compromised files,
ensuring critical data is recovered quickly
to minimize operational disruption.
Concurrently, the security team might execute
breach response protocols
to notify stakeholders and regulators.
Next, we will explore attribution.
Attribution is the process of identifying the source
or threat actor responsible for a security incident.
A type of actor that an incident may be attributed to
is an insider threat.
Insider threats occur when an individual
within the organization, such as an employee
or contractor, intentionally or unintentionally
compromises systems or data.
In this situation,
attribution focuses on gathering evidence
such as access logs and behavior analytics
to confirm the threat originated internally
and determine if the incident was caused
by negligence, error or malicious intent.
For example, if sensitive files were accessed by an employee
outside of their usual rule,
attribution efforts would focus on analyzing access logs
and communications to determine if this activity
was conducted by an insider threat.
Identifying the individual responsible
allows the organization to respond appropriately
and prevent future incidents.
Finally, we will look at root cause analysis.
Root cause analysis is the process
of identifying the underlying reason for a security incident
to prevent future occurrences.
This involves tracing the issue back to its origin
by analyzing technical failures, vulnerabilities,
or human errors that enabled the incident.
The goal is to understand how the incident occurred,
whether it was due to misconfigurations,
unpacked software or procedural failures
and then to implement long-term solutions
that address these root causes.
For example, after a successful phishing attack,
root cause analysis might reveal
that the organization lacks sufficient email filtering
and employee training.
By addressing these gaps,
the organization can reduce the likelihood
of similar incidents in the future.
To finish things off, we'll take a short quiz
to see what you learned during this section of the course,
and we will review each of those quiz questions fully
to ensure you can explain why the right answers were right
and the wrong answers were wrong.
So, let's get ready to dive into incident response
in this section of the course.