Cybersecurity incident response playbooks are comprehensive guides for institutions or organizations that include established procedures, roles, responsibilities, and other relevant information. They offer many benefits, including rapid response, consistency, effective resource management, preparation, and the creation of a corporate security culture.
TL;DR
Organizations must respond to cybersecurity incidents in a fast, consistent, and effective manner. Incident Response Playbooks are designed to facilitate and manage this response process. Containing predefined procedures, roles and responsibilities, communication protocols, and other relevant information, these playbooks form an essential part of an organization's cybersecurity strategy. They offer many advantages such as rapid response, consistency, effective resource management, advance preparation, and the creation of an organizational security culture. In addition, the lifecycle, which defines the process of responding to cyber incidents in four phases, ensures the effective use of incident response playbooks: Preparation, Detection and Analysis, Containment, Remediation and Recovery, and Post-Action. Each phase provides learning and improvement opportunities for organizations to strengthen their cybersecurity capabilities and better prepare for future threats. This article discusses the importance of Incident Response Playbooks for responding to cybersecurity incidents and the key principles of their implementation.
Purpose of Incident Response Playbook
The responsibilities and burden on cyber security teams of organizations and companies increase day by day. The reason behind this is that the range of alerts on the defense side expands as cyber threats become more diverse in cybersecurity. Therefore, automation usage in these teams is rising continuously. Incident Response Playbooks are at the top among these automations. In basic usage, the action phase of alerts generated in a particular template or group shows similarity. For example, for an alert generated by the Port Scan rule, automation can ensure that the Attacker IP is added to the blacklist in security products (firewall, DDoS, etc.) after checking situations such as IOC query, and action taken in logs. In this way, SOC analysts do not devote effort to low-level and repetitive alerts during the day. Thus, both low-level alerts will not be passed without being examined and time will be saved for the employee.
Incident Response Playbook is a documented set of predetermined procedures and guidelines that an organization follows when responding to cyber security incidents. It includes the steps to be taken from the initial detection of the incident, through scoping, elimination, and remediation. Playbooks are designed to speed up the response process, ensure consistency in the actions taken, and minimize the impact of security incidents on the organization. They usually contain detailed instructions for specific types of incidents, roles and responsibilities, communication protocols, escalation paths, and other relevant information. Incident Response Playbooks are a key component of an organization's cybersecurity strategy and help improve overall response effectiveness.
Incident Response Planning
Incident Response Planning is the preparation process of an organization to respond to cyber security events. This planning process is designed to ensure that the organization is prepared for cyber attacks and to minimize the impact of the incidents. Here are the main goals of Incident Response Planning:
Rapid and efficient detection of the incidents: The plan includes identifying systems and processes to ensure that incidents are detected in their early stages.
Identifying response teams and defining roles: The plan ensures that teams are formed to respond to different types of incidents and that the roles and responsibilities of each team are clearly defined.
Identification of communication protocols and escalation paths: The plan includes the identification of internal and external communication processes and contacts. It also guides how to direct the flow of information and who to inform, depending on the severity of the incident.
Comprehensive investigation and response to incidents: The plan includes necessary steps to assess the impact of incidents, determine their scope, and ensure an effective response.
Documentation and reporting of incidents: The plan provides for detailed documentation, analysis, and reporting of incidents. This is important for the organization to learn from incidents and be better prepared for future incidents.
Life Cycle of Incident Response Playbooks
The life cycle of Incident Response can be described in several ways. However, this article is based on the "Computer Security Incident Handling Guide" report of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It is also the most widely used module. This module consists of four steps.
PREPARATION: The preparation phase is one of the most important parts. The reason behind this is that being more prepared for cyber attacks leads to being less affected by these incidents. Therefore, preventing incidents in a timely manner will ensure that networks and applications are secure. For example, the preparedness phase involves predetermining what the organization will face when different malware or vulnerabilities are exploited. It also aims for the organization to prevent cyber attacks from occurring and to stop it in the first step.
DETECTION and ANALYSIS: The "Detect" phase forms an important part of an Incident Response Playbook and highlights an organization's ability to detect cyber threats. Logs are collected from the security devices and alerts are generated when the detection rules are triggered. Different incident response playbooks work according to the severity and categories of these alerts. It enables the collection of IOCs (indicators of compromise) in the face of attacks from networks or applications. Thus, it is ensured that attacks are detected against current vulnerabilities. In line with the triggered rules, alerts in structures such as SIEM (Security information and event management), and EDR/XDR should be examined. Sometimes rules can generate False Positive alerts. Therefore, the analysis phase is critically important, because it may cause unnecessary effort and action to be taken if False Positive alerts cannot be detected here.
CONTAINMENT, ERADICATION, AND RECOVERY: This phase includes the initial measures taken to stop the spread of the cybersecurity incident and isolate the affected systems which aims to prevent the attack or incident from spreading to other systems or network resources. For example, steps such as physically separating an infected system from the network or updating input/output filtering rules to prevent the spread of malware can be taken at this stage. This measure aims to ensure that the system survives with minimal damage. It aims to prevent its spread in the network. Most incidents should be isolated from the network as a precautionary measure before full analysis. Another important issue at this stage is the size of the environment to be isolated. Depending on the incident, while sometimes only one device is taken down, sometimes it is possible to take down a complete network. The action to be taken is in parallel with the size of the incident and the number of systems accessed by the attacker on the network.
MITIGATION: In an incident investigation, after the system has been isolated from the network, it is necessary to eliminate the components of the incident. Sometimes temporarily disabling a compromised account, applying a patch for a vulnerability, or taking protective measures against the attack can be done at this stage. This stage includes temporary measures taken to reduce or prevent the effects of a cybersecurity incident. All measures taken in mitigation are quick actions taken during the incident which are temporary and not definitive solutions.
ERADICATION: This phase includes permanent measures to identify and eliminate the root causes of the incident. This may include steps such as closing the vulnerabilities that caused the attack, cleaning up malware, or reconfiguring affected systems. It also includes permanent measures such as deleting accounts used in the attack or accounts created during the attack, or changing passwords. The most important thing at this stage is to take the necessary actions for all affected systems. The scheduled tasks/jobs created, if any, should be deleted, and any group changes should be corrected.
RECOVERY: This phase includes measures taken to ensure that the affected systems return to their normal functioning. This may include repairing systems, undoing data loss or corruption, and making services available again. During this phase, administrators restore the system if it has a backup from before the incident. Depending on the circumstances of the incident, it is closed if the attackers have exploited an existing vulnerability. They ensure that all services and applications are up-to-date, or they install the systems from scratch according to the situation. If a system has been attacked before, it will often be targeted by attackers with similar methods in the future.
BACKUP EVIDENCES: This phase involves collecting and backing up the data and evidence needed to investigate and report on the incident. This includes log files, memory images, network traffic data, and other relevant information. The goal here is to collect traces of attackers (IOC) and write detection/protection rules against potential future attacks.
POST-INCIDENT ACTIVITY
LESSON LEARNED: This phase includes the knowledge and experience gained as a result of the investigation of the incident which are used to reduce the impact of similar incidents in the future. It may also include recommendations for improving existing safety measures and processes. It is one of the most important parts of incident response, but it is also the most frequently skipped part. Usually, cybersecurity teams close the case without looking at this stage after blocking the current attack or surviving with minor damage. However, it should not be forgotten that if this stage is ignored, potential similar attacks may be faced in the future. Teams should look for answers to the following questions after experiencing an incident.
What exactly happened and at what time?
How well did the team and management perform in incident management?
Were incident management procedures followed? Were there any gaps in the procedures? Were they adequate?
What information was needed before?
Were any steps or actions encountered that would prevent recovery?
What can the team and management do differently in a similar incident in the future?
Which actions prevent similar incidents from happening in the future?
What additional tools or resources are needed to detect, analyze, and mitigate similar incidents in the future?
The Importance of Incident Response Playbooks
The importance of Incident Response Playbooks is specified below.
Rapid Response: Being prepared to reduce the impact on the system as a result of incidents will shorten the action time. Determining the actions to be taken from the moment the incident is detected will accelerate the teams. Detection of the incident and taking quick action afterward will minimize damage to the structure. Prolonged detection and action will increase the possibility of the attacker staying in the system longer and damaging the organization. In addition, such incidents damage the reputation of organizations and can also cause financial losses. Taking quick action will reduce the loss of the structure both in terms of reputation and financially.
Consistency: Organizations have predetermined procedures and guidelines for such situations. The purpose of this is to ensure that similar actions are taken by different teams or for incidents that occur at different times. Consistency in action plans will ensure that different teams work in harmony. Consistency increases the effectiveness of the response process and reduces the margin of error.
Efficient Resource Management: Having playbooks in teams for incidents will ensure efficient use of resources in the team. A clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of the people in the team prevents wasteful use of time and resources. Thus, each team member acts according to their roles and responsibilities, and uncertainties in the work are minimized.
Advance Preparation: Incident Response Playbooks help organizations prepare in advance for potential threats. Pre-prepared procedures and guidelines enable organizations to plan and implement a defense strategy against cyber threats. This ensures that teams operate the processes without panicking in the event of an attack and that they are fast and coordinated.
Organizational Security Culture: Incident Response Playbooks are an important part of building a security culture for organizations. They provide clear guidance on how all personnel should respond to security incidents which in turn increases security awareness. Thus, it strengthens the security culture of the organization.
The most common attack among current cyber attacks is malware. However, Ransomware is the attack that affects both state institutions and large companies the most in terms of money and reputation and the number of affected structures is increasing day by day. For example, sample Playbooks of both incidents are shared below. Both playbooks are inclusive of the incident and include the life cycles shared by NIST. By analyzing these two examples, playbooks can be written for different categories of alerts.
As a result, Incident Response Playbooks are a critical tool to help organizations respond effectively to cybersecurity incidents. These playbooks contain predetermined procedures and guidelines that guide a comprehensive response process starting from incident detection. They provide important benefits such as rapid response, consistency, effective resource management, advance preparation, learning and improvement, and building an organizational security culture. For organizations, creating and updating these playbooks is an important step to strengthen their cybersecurity strategy and improve security. As a result, Incident Response Playbooks are a critical component in helping organizations to be better prepared and respond effectively to cyber threats. This article aims to provide general information and resources about what Incident Response Playbooks are, their use and importance in organizations. We hope it will be useful for everyone who wants to learn about Incident Response Playbook!
