Incident response today using a Virtual Analyst

The Incident Response process aims to manage and mitigate security incidents or data breaches to minimize damage and reduce recovery time.

The process typically follows a number of key steps. However, the terminology and exact order may vary depending on the organization or framework.

Using AI can significantly enhance the Incident Response process in several ways.

The Incident Response (IR) process aims to systematically manage and mitigate the effects of security incidents or data breaches.

This process is essential in minimizing the potential damage caused by such incidents, including data loss, business interruption, reputational damage, and legal implications.

1 Preparation

The IR process begins with the preparation phase, which involves establishing an incident response team, developing response plans, and setting up communication protocols.?

This proactive planning helps to ensure that the organization is ready to respond swiftly and effectively when an incident occurs.

Ideally AI should support the Incident Response process by introducing an Incident Management platform to store, classify, write report and share information between team members.

Some solutions also introduce a tool for post-incident process review and enables the incident response team for better performances.?

2 Identification

When a security incident is detected, the IR process moves into the identification phase. This involves recognizing and analyzing the indicators of compromise (IoCs) to understand the nature and scope of the incident.?

The sooner an incident is identified, the quicker the response can be, which helps limit the potential damage.

The ideal incident management platform can effectively manage Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) by providing a centralized repository to collect, analyze, and respond to potential threats.

3 Containment

The aim is to stop the incident from causing further harm by isolating affected systems or networks. This can involve disconnecting affected machines, blocking malicious IP addresses, or changing user credentials, among other measures.

By managing IoCs in a centralized and efficient manner and integrating with third parties technology providers, AI incident management platform empowers organizations to respond faster to threats, minimizing the impact of cyber incidents and strengthening their overall security posture.

AI can also facilitate the orchestration and automation of security processes, enabling seamless collaboration between various security tools and teams.

4 Reporting

The reporting phase is a critical part of incident response and management, as it provides a detailed account of the incident, its causes, impacts, and recommended steps for mitigation.

This stage ensures transparency, aids in decision-making, and sets the stage for effective recovery and prevention of future incidents.

During this stage, the incident's root cause is thoroughly investigated and identified. This could be a cybersecurity attack exploiting a known vulnerability, an internal error, or a failure in the system.?

Upon identifying the cause, a detailed report is compiled, providing a comprehensive account of the incident. This includes the incident, when and how it occurred, what systems were affected, and other pertinent details.

The report should also contain a technical explanation of the incident for the IT and security teams and a non-technical summary for other stakeholders.

The latest AI assistants produce complete human readable reports that are rich and accurate. They contain five different sections:

• Report: in a human-readable format, it gives the alert description, the possible attacker's goals, the investigative action to exploit, the investigation details, and a possible conclusion.
• Notes: a section that uses a timeline to describe the workflow AI Virtual Analyst has followed with the action done.
• Observables:? the identifiable pieces of data or evidence that were observed in the alert handled.?
• IOC: Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) are signs of a cyber-attack. IoCs serve as pieces of forensic data that can help identify potentially malicious activity.
• Raw Data: refers to the unprocessed, unfiltered information gathered directly from various sources within an organization's network.?

The cybersecurity incident report provided includes essential information to provide a clear picture of the incident with executive summary and recommendations.

Overall, the reporting stage plays a pivotal role in effective incident response, as it helps ensure that incidents are properly understood and addressed, minimizes future risks, and enhances the organization's overall security posture. The lessons learned from the reporting phase can also feed into an organization's continuous improvement process, promoting a proactive and adaptive approach to cybersecurity.

5 Re-analyzing

A virtual analysts perform a continuous retrospective analysis; AI instances are built to identify possible Kill Chain using MITRE classification, and they perform a post-detection search every time a new alert is ingested.?

That permits a very qualified ratio of new case findings that could correlate with previously forgotten alerts that were not raising any flags.

The synergy of AI and human intelligence allows for a more robust and proactive defense against cyber threats.

In all those cases it's important to note that while AI can significantly improve threat analysis capabilities, it should complement human expertise rather than replace it.

Modern automation and artificial intelligence tools, such as RedCarbon AI, can help simplify and accelerate many parts of this process, but human participation is still crucial for many stages, especially for making strategic and complex decisions.