What are the best incident handling strategies for cloud environments?

1 Understand the cloud model

Before you can handle an incident effectively, you need to understand the cloud model you are using, and the roles and responsibilities of the cloud service provider (CSP) and the cloud customer. Depending on the type of cloud service (such as IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS), the CSP may have more or less control and visibility over the cloud infrastructure, platform, or software. You also need to know the service level agreement (SLA) and the terms and conditions of the CSP, which may affect the incident response capabilities and obligations of both parties.

2 Prepare for incidents

Preparation is a key element of incident handling, as it can help reduce the impact and duration of incidents, as well as improve communication and coordination with the CSP and other stakeholders. To properly prepare, you should establish an incident response team and define their roles and authority. Additionally, develop an incident response plan that covers objectives, scope, procedures, and tools for incident handling. Furthermore, identify and document critical assets, systems, and data in the cloud environment, including their dependencies and risks. Additionally, implement security controls and monitoring tools to protect against and detect incidents in the cloud environment. Finally, conduct regular training and testing of the incident response team and plan.

4 Contain and eradicate incidents

Once you have analyzed the incident, it's important to contain and eradicate it to prevent further damage. Isolating the affected systems or components from the rest of the cloud environment using network segmentation, firewall rules, or access control is a good start. Additionally, removing any malicious or compromised elements from the cloud environment, such as malware, backdoors, or unauthorized accounts can help. Restoring corrupted or deleted data from backups or snapshots is also beneficial when possible. Finally, verifying that the incident is fully contained and eradicated using scanning tools or audits is a must.

5 Recover from incidents

Once you have contained and eradicated the incident, you must recover from it to restore the normal operations and functionality of the cloud environment. This includes applying any patches or updates to fix any vulnerabilities or issues that may have contributed to the incident, testing and validating the performance of the cloud environment to ensure it meets standards, monitoring and reviewing the environment for signs of recurrence or residual effects, and documenting and reporting the incident to relevant stakeholders and authorities. Doing so will help you get back on track quickly.

6 Learn from incidents

The final step of incident handling is to learn from incidents, to improve your incident response capabilities and prevent or mitigate future incidents. To do this, you should conduct a post-incident review to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the incident response team and plan. Document the lessons learned, best practices, and areas for improvement, then implement any recommendations or action items to address any gaps or weaknesses in the incident response team and plan. Finally, update and revise the incident response plan to reflect any changes or enhancements in the incident response process or tools.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?