Incident Response

What does incident response mean?

In cybersecurity, incident response refers to the process of detecting, analyzing and responding to security incidents. It involves identifying the scope and impact of the incident, containing the damage, eradicating the threat, and recovering from the incident. The goal of incident response is to minimize the impact of security breaches and restore normal operations as quickly as possible.

What are the types of security incidents in cybersecurity?

There are many different types of security incidents, but some of the most common include:

• Unauthorized access to systems or data: Unauthorized access to systems or data occurs when an individual or entity gains access to a computer system or data without authorization. This can be done through various methods, such as hacking, phishing or exploiting system vulnerabilities. Unauthorized access can lead to a variety of security risks, including data theft, system damage and disruption of operations.
• Malware infections: A malware infection is when a computer or network is infected with malicious software, also known as malware. Malware can include viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware and ransomware. It can be spread through email attachments, malicious websites, infected USB drives and other means. Malware can damage files, steal sensitive information and disrupt computer operations.
• Denial-of-service attacks: The intended purpose of a denial-of-service (DoS) cyberattack is to make a computer or network resource unavailable to its intended users. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, such as flooding the target with traffic, sending malformed packets or exploiting software vulnerabilities. DoS attacks can be used to disrupt online services, such as websites, email and online banking. They can also be used to extort money from organizations or to sabotage competitors.
• Phishing attacks: Phishing is a type of social engineering attack designed to trick individuals into giving up sensitive information or clicking on malicious links. Phishing attacks often take the form of emails, text messages or phone calls that appear to come from legitimate sources, such as banks, credit card companies or government agencies. The goal of a phishing attack is to get the victim to enter their personal information, such as their username, password, or credit card number, on a fake website or to download malware onto their computer. Phishing attacks can be very convincing, and even savvy internet users can be fooled.
• Insider threats: An insider threat is a malicious act that is perpetrated by an individual who has authorized access to an organization's systems or data. Insider threats can be intentional or unintentional. Some examples of insider threats include employees who steal sensitive data or financial information, employees who sabotage systems or networks, employees who leak confidential information to unauthorized individuals, and/or employees who use their access to systems or data to commit fraud or other crimes. Insider threats can be difficult to detect and prevent because the individuals involved have legitimate access to the organization's systems and data. 
• Data breaches: A data breach is an incident in which sensitive, protected or confidential data is accessed and disclosed in an unauthorized fashion. This can occur through a variety of means, such as hacking, phishing, malware infections, insider threats or physical theft of data storage devices. 
• Application-layer attacks: Application-layer attacks target vulnerabilities in an application's code or logic, aiming to exploit flaws like SQL injection, path traversal or broken authentication. These attacks focus on compromising the functionality or data within the application itself, bypassing many traditional security measures. Log4j is a recent example of a highly impactful application-layer attack that allowed attackers to perform remote code execution (RCE) by exploiting improper input handling.

What are the phases of incident response?

Typically, the phases of incident response include the following:

• Preparation: Developing an incident response plan, identifying resources and training personnel.
• Detection and analysis: Identifying and analyzing security incidents.
• Containment: Isolating and containing the incident to prevent further damage.
• Eradication: Removing the threat and restoring normal operations.
• Recovery: Restoring data and systems and evaluating the incident to prevent future occurrences.

What are the most common incident response technologies?

Incident response teams rely on a variety of technologies to detect, respond to and mitigate cybersecurity threats. These tools help streamline the incident response process, automate tasks and provide visibility into security incidents. Some of the most commonly used technologies in incident response include:

• Security information and event management (SIEM)

• Purpose: SIEM systems aggregate and analyze log data from various sources (network devices, servers, applications) to identify patterns indicative of security incidents.
• Role in incident response: SIEMs help detect threats by correlating data from different sources and generating alerts. They also provide incident responders with logs and event data needed for forensic analysis.

• Endpoint detection and response (EDR) 

• Purpose: EDR tools monitor endpoints (workstations, laptops, servers) for signs of malicious activity and provide visibility into endpoint behavior.
• Role in incident response: These tools help detect and respond to advanced threats like malware, ransomware and fileless attacks on individual devices. They allow for remote investigation, containment and remediation.

• Network traffic analysis (NTA) 

• Purpose: NTA tools monitor and analyze network traffic to identify anomalies or suspicious behaviors that may indicate an attack.
• Role in incident response: NTA tools help identify lateral movement, data exfiltration and other network-based attack techniques. They provide visibility into communications between systems and detect malicious activity that may bypass other controls.

• Forensic tools

• Purpose: Forensic tools are used to investigate incidents by analyzing system memory, file systems and logs for evidence of compromise.
• Role in incident response: These tools assist in deep-dive investigations, enabling incident responders to trace the origin of an attack, assess the extent of the damage and collect evidence for potential legal action.

• Threat intelligence platforms (TIPs)

• Purpose: TIPs gather, process and share threat intelligence data from multiple sources, such as malware databases, external threat feeds and security researchers.
• Role in incident response: Incident response teams use threat intelligence to identify known threats and indicators of compromise (IoCs). It helps them understand the nature of an attack and potential mitigations.

How does incident response deal with application-layer attacks today?

Incident response (IR) teams face unique challenges when dealing with application-layer attacks because these attacks target vulnerabilities in the software itself, often bypassing traditional security tools designed to monitor network or system activity. 

The most common tools such as EDR provide excellent visibility into behavior at the process and network level, but they can’t provide visibility into the internal activity within the application itself. Application logs and application performance management (APM) tools may provide some additional insights for incident responders, but these are typically maintained by groups outside of security, thereby creating barriers to incident responders. 

At the end of the day, this application visibility gap delays detection of ongoing attacks and significantly slows down investigations and response.

What are the benefits of a good incident response program?

If the role of incident response is to detect, analyze and respond effectively to security incidents, then a good incident response program is ideally suited to do all this—or at least to assist SOC and IR teams in their incident response effort. 

Key benefits include:

• Minimizes the impact of security incidents. A good IR program allows organizations to quickly detect, contain and mitigate threats before they escalate. This rapid response limits the damage caused by attacks, reducing the potential for data breaches, downtime, and loss of sensitive information. It also ensures that operations can be restored swiftly.
• Reduces recovery time and costs. Efficient incident response processes help reduce the time needed to recover from an attack. This can lead to significant cost savings by minimizing downtime, preventing the spread of malware, and reducing the need for costly forensic investigations or third-party remediation efforts. It also helps avoid potential regulatory fines that could result from a delayed or inadequate response.
• Ensures regulatory compliance. Many industries are subject to strict data protection and cybersecurity regulations (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS). A strong incident response program ensures that organizations can meet these requirements by having documented processes in place to respond to breaches and report incidents to the relevant authorities within specified timeframes, avoiding legal and financial penalties.

According to IBM and the Ponemon Institute, the global average cost of a data breach was $4.88 million—a 10% increase from 2023 and the highest amount recorded by their annual report. A good incident response program helps organizations avoid the high costs and overall damage caused by security incidents. Indeed, IBM and the Ponemon Institute found that organizations that “used security AI and automation extensively in prevention” saved $2.22 million compared with organizations that lack  these solutions.

Why Contrast ADR is an ideal solution for incident response teams

With a rising number of attacks targeting the application layer, IR teams require solutions that provide them not only with adequate visibility but that can also help block and remediate issues within web applications. Contrast ADR is the ideal solution.

By operating from within the application, Contrast ADR sheds light on what’s actually happening inside custom applications and application programming interfaces (APIs). Contrast ADR uses in-app instrumentation for continuous protection against web and API vulnerabilities. Contrast ADR can also block attacks that target known and unknown vulnerabilities, including zero days, empowering organizations to stop application threats before they cause damage. With Contrast ADR’s persistent and accurate detection of true threats, IR teams can adapt quickly and innovate without compromising security against zero-day vulnerabilities or other threats targeting the application layer.