What do you do if you suspect a cyber attack on your organization?

Before an incident occurs, organizations should have in place appropriate incident response plans. The plan should identify the security expert or personnel who will provide direction on ways to remediate the incident. If you have been or suspect that you have been hacked, the incident response plan should be executed. Broadly, this should entail performing a security check on all affected system accounts and reporting the incident to the relevant authority. The plan should also describe steps that staff can take following the incident in question.

To confirm whether a cyber attack has occurred, look for signs such as unusual network activity, unauthorized access to systems or data, suspicious file modifications, or any other indicators of compromise. Utilize security tools and techniques such as intrusion detection systems (IDS), endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions, and forensic analysis to investigate the incident.

You need to immediately isolate the incident and put your affected devices on quarantine. The purpose of this action is to minimize the exposure and the spread of the impact on your systems which can cause disastrous damages. Once you have isolated the affected devices, you need to revoke all accesses and collect the logs for further investigation. Also, you can execute patches and reset procedures to ensure you remove the issue.

Once the attack has been confirmed, take immediate steps to contain and mitigate its impact. This may involve deploying patches or updates to vulnerable systems, resetting compromised credentials, restoring data from backups, or implementing additional security measures to prevent further attacks.

Collect as much information as possible about the cyber attack, including when it occurred, how it was carried out, and what systems or data were affected. This may involve reviewing logs, analyzing network traffic, and interviewing staff members. Determine how the attacker gained access to your systems and what methods they used to carry out the attack. This could involve analyzing malware samples, examining phishing emails, or studying exploit techniques.

Once you have collected the logs, it is now time to analyze the proof you collected to understand how a cyberattack have occurred inside your organizations. You can also use IoC to collect more information on the affected devices. Forensics are a great exercise to understand the attack process that happened in your systems and trace back the different vulnerabilities and techniques used to get access inside your network.

Develop a plan to contain the cyber attack and remediate any damage that has been done. This may involve restoring from backups, patching vulnerable systems, or implementing additional security controls.

Once you have collected all the proof and have an understanding of what happened, it is time to remove the threat from your network. You can start by running the backups and rebuild your affected devices with new systems/version and patch vulnerabilities. Also, make sure run scan at the end to verify there are no active threats and new vulnerabilities on the systems. To void any conflict in your operations, you can rebuild it in a test environment to ensure everything is running smoothly. Afterward, you can implement it in your production systems.

Keep stakeholders informed throughout the incident response process, including employees, customers, partners, and regulators. Transparency and timely communication can help maintain trust and mitigate reputational damage.

All of your concerned team members and stakeholders must be aware of the attack. This will ensure that everyone understand what happened and mentioned if they have to take extra actions. For example, you will have to talk to the legal department to conduct further actions if required and even communicate with customers who was affected by the incident.

Once the cyber attack incident is resolved, execute a thorough review of the cyber attack and conduct root cause analysis to reassess your cybersecurity posture. Determine how the attack was detected, how the response was executed, and areas for improvement. It’s also essential to update your incident response plan and security measures based on the lessons learned from the incident.

Once the immediate threat has been addressed, conduct a thorough post-incident review to identify lessons learned and areas for improvement. Use this information to strengthen your organization's defenses and better prepare for future cyber attacks.

The most important step of the whole process. Time to learn to avoid any similar situations occurring in the future. Therefore, you must self-reflect and analyze on how your team operated. Also, you can identify flaws on your systems and see where you should invest to improve your cybersecurity posture.

As an Individual Associate, you have the power to protect your organization from even the most sophisticated cyber threats. By taking swift action and following a clear incident response plan, you can contain, analyze, and eradicate attacks, while keeping stakeholders informed and learning from each experience. Remember that every attack offers an opportunity to strengthen your security measures and better prepare for the future. With your knowledge, expertise, and determination, you can create a safer digital world for all.