Ransomware fraud or data theft - be prepared for anything with us!
Recognizing the signs of a security incident in your network as quickly as possible is elementarily important for cybersecurity managers to be able to react to it immediately and appropriately. According to the latest Allianz Risk Barometer, the risk of business interruption due to cyber attacks is one of the most significant business risks worldwide. The prerequisite for an organization's ongoing incident response readiness is developing and implementing a comprehensive cyber defense strategy that ensures your teams' ability to detect, defend against, and mitigate complex attacks.
Even after significant investments in cybersecurity, many IT security managers cannot say with certainty how reliably and effectively they would be able to detect, analyze and defend against a targeted attack or how well their company is prepared for potential threats. The fact is that companies need well-rehearsed incident response readiness processes to be able to act in the event of an emergency. We first analyze the effectiveness of these processes based on your organization's ability to defend against attacks. Our cybersecurity consultants then provide recommendations for optimization in the form of a catalog of measures. In principle, the faster a security incident is detected, the more decisively the damage can be limited.
Checklist: How well is your attack defense set up?
Are the necessary conditions in place in your company to optimally manage a security incident (triggered, for example, by internal misuse of IT systems, by a cyber attack using ransomware or a DDoS attack, by a social engineering attack, sending of phishing emails, exploitation of data leaks, data manipulation, etc.)?
A comprehensive incident response readiness strategy includes detailed policies and processes to handle security incidents appropriately, primarily addressing the following areas:
Organization
Are tasks and responsibilities clearly defined and duties assigned in the event of a cyber attack?
Guidelines and standards
Does your incident response readiness strategy meet applicable legal and regulatory requirements (response time, reporting channels)?
Technology
Are practical tools (hardware and software) available in your organization to detect cyber threats immediately and permanently (threat intelligence)?
Processes
Have transparent processes been defined for different emergency scenarios? Do the responsible employees know what to do when a security incident occurs?
Training
Do your employees have the expertise to respond appropriately to a security incident? Are your company's security processes tested regularly with planning exercises on the technical and management levels?
Assessment
Do cybersecurity experts regularly assess the functionality of your defenses for threat scenarios and incident response?
Dos and Don'ts in the event of a security incident
To do
- Document security incident: What? When? Where? Who? How?
- Communicate security incidents according to defined reporting channels.
- Document all further steps.
- Do not change any data!
- Initiate competent preservation of evidence!
Avoid
- Communicate security incidents outside of defined reporting channels.
- Time-delayed reporting of the security incident to the affected party or originator.
- A premature shutdown of systems.
- Delayed start of analyses by forensic investigators.
- Destruction of evidence through hasty and possibly unqualified actions.
Legal requirement to establish an incident response readiness strategy
EU General Data Protection Regulation
- Personal data breaches (data breaches) must be reported to the supervisory authority, and the data subjects notified.
- In this context, the notification must be made without delay and, if possible, within 72 hours. The period begins when the data breach becomes known, and the data controller can submit a corresponding notification.
IT Security Act
- Disruptions to the availability, integrity, authenticity, and confidentiality of your information technology systems, components, or processes that have led or may lead to a failure or significant impairment of the functionality of the critical infrastructures you operate.
Not yet sufficiently prepared for the worst case?
Our cybersecurity consultants review your existing strategy for identifying cybersecurity incidents and advise you on how to optimize your incident response readiness.
In particular, our consulting focuses on the following incident response readiness components for effective threat detection and defense:
- Review of responsibilities and processes when a security incident occurs as the basis for an effective defense strategy (are IR functions or a Security Operation Center (SOC) in place?
- Review of the transparency and effectiveness of incident response processes, taking into account your staff, organizational processes, and technologies.
- Review the effectiveness of your communication channels to ensure prompt information to internal and external stakeholders.
- Review existing security procedures and tools to collect and analyze information about hackers and their tools, tactics, and processes (TTPs). Goal: Promptly detect and track existing threats on the corporate network.
- Verification of the reaction speed of your security-responsible employees after detection of a cyber attack. If necessary, by simulating an actual attack, such as by ransomware.
- Review your restart strategy - this includes recovery processes and power-on sequences, for example. Do you have an overview of which systems are recovered with priority and which dependencies you need to consider?
