What is Reactive Incident Response vs. Proactive Incident Response?

The increasing complexity and frequency of cyberattacks have placed a spotlight on the importance of effective incident response strategies. Incident response is a comprehensive practice of controls, processes, and strategy by which an organization responds to a cyberattack. It involves identifying, analyzing, and mitigating security breaches, cyberattacks, or other threats in real-time. The objective of incident response is to minimize damage, contain the incident's scope, and facilitate a swift recovery while preserving crucial evidence for further investigation. 

This article will delve into the importance of incidence response, how reactive and proactive incident response strategies differ and what approach may offer the best defense in today's cybersecurity landscape. 

Why is Incident Response Crucial for Every Organization?

Incident response, essentially, is the how and what you do after a cyberattack.  An incident response strategy’s importance cannot be overstated as effectively responding to cyber incidents can limit damage, reduce recovery time and costs, and protect your organization's reputation. 

Reactive vs. Proactive Incident Response

Effective cybersecurity protocols require investments in time, human resources, and monetary funds. By understanding the difference of reactive vs proactive incident response strategies, organizations can make more informed, efficient decisions about what program is right for their business and how to distribute their resources for maximum impact. 

Reactive Incident Response 

Reactive strategies focus primarily on limiting damage after a security incident has been detected. This method includes identifying the extent of the breach, securing compromised systems, eliminating threat entry points, and initiating recovery processes.  

With a reactive strategy, you will need an end-to-end security incident management program that quickly mitigates malicious activity and provides a comprehensive evaluation of the extent of the disruption. It is important to prioritize taking the appropriate steps to accelerate a return to normal business operations.  

A reactive incident response strategy includes three key steps:   

Rapid Deployment: Stopping the attacker and limiting damage starting with quickly determining the investigative direction, having access to the appropriate toolset and investigation staff, getting access to in-scope networks and systems, performing an initial investigation, and collecting and preserving the appropriate evidence.  

Contain the Attack: Once you have the right information about the attack, you will begin containing and removing the threat actor's presence. This includes initiating containment actions, quarantining effected files/systems, performing forensic crime scene reconstruction, identifying source and intrusion vectors, recreating lateral pathways and uncovering data exfiltration instances.  

Reporting and Continuous Improvement: Finally, once the attack is contained, you will need to leverage the information gained to strengthen your security and report your findings to relevant parties. This should include having an inventory of compromised assets, a readout for leadership, satisfying reporting obligations and transitioning findings to law enforcement. Most importantly your team should implement lessons learned from the incident to improve your cybersecurity program.  

The advantage of a reactive incident response strategy is that it can be tailored to the specific incident at hand.  

On the downside, if you don’t have an IR provider on retainer, you will spend the first 24-48 hours identifying, evaluating, and securing the appropriate resources required for effective incident response. Compounding the complexity of remediation efforts during this period, critical infrastructure and communication systems are often offline, which can lead to operational downtime, costing your business $225K USD per day on average.   

Proactive Incident Response

A proactive incident response method revolves around taking preventative measures before a cybersecurity incident occurs. This includes implementing an incident response retainer which provides immediate access to expert on-demand digital forensics and incident response services if an incident occurs.  

A proactive incident response program will include developing an incident response plan based off industry-specific templates, incident response assessments, and conducting tabletop exercises. This ensures you make the necessary improvements to your program ahead of time, so you are prepared to withstand and quickly recover from a cyberattack.  

When an incident occurs, a proactive incident response strategy will follow the same 3 key steps as a reactive strategy. However, you will have a leg up on rapid deployment as your incident response provider immediately has access to the appropriate resources to begin their investigation allowing you to quickly contain the incident and recover.   

One advantage of having an IR retainer is that your team knows exactly who to call when an incident occurs, bringing rapid control and stability to your organization. This ensures your business can contain and recover from a security incident quickly to limit business disruption, reduce costs, and recover from reputational damage. 

The downside to this strategy to this approach is that it requires an upfront investment in an incident response retainer service. This can be challenging for teams when their budgets and resources are already stretched. However, for organizations that can’t undertake an upfront investment, the IR provider may offer more cost-effective solutions, such as an Incident Response Readiness service.  

The Importance of a Proactive Approach to Incident Response

The reality is that no matter how strong your safeguards, how powerful or cutting-edge your technology, and how robust your processes are, cyber defenses can and will fail. The faster you can respond, the more chance you have of regaining control and preventing your business from being disrupted.  

Therefore, it is important to have an incident response provider already engaged so that when an incident happens, you can react quickly.   

Additional Proactive Incident Response Strategies 

It can also be important to invest in other proactive cyber defense strategies like Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services. MDR provides continuous monitoring, threat detection, and response to potential security incidents. MDR providers use a combination of technology, threat intelligence, and human expertise to identify and address security threats in real-time. MDR services let you respond quickly when potential threats occur or become full blown security incident. 

Leveraging Managed Detection and Response Services with Digital Forensics and Incident Response services allows you to extend your capabilities across the full incident response lifecycle.  

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How Do I Evaluate Incident Response Providers?

Unfortunately, most traditional IR providers need 24 hours to deploy boots on the ground when a breach occurs. Moving too slowly can result in significant financial losses and reputational harm.  

It is important to have an Incident Response service provider who can react quickly and efficacy. Having immediate access to digital forensics technology and incident response expertise brings rapid control to your organization and is critical to limiting business disruption, reducing costs, and recovering from reputational damage.  

Therefore, you need to choose an Incident Response partner who will offer the right protection for your business. Here are some examples of questions to ask when evaluating incident response providers: 

• How quickly can you respond to an incident when my team hits the panic button?  
• When do you deploy your tools and technology?  
• What tools do you use to deliver your incident response service?  

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10 Questions to Consider When Evaluating an Incident Response Provider

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eSentire Digital Forensics and Incident Response 

eSentire can support you regardless of the incident response strategy you choose through our Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) service which is available as emergency or as an Incident Response retainer:  

Emergency Incident Response Service (Reactive): If you are not ready to be on a retainer model, we can provide emergency Incident Response to anyone calling into our 1-866-579-2200 phone line, if you suspect any malicious activities across your environment.  

On-Demand 24/7 Service (Proactive): Our On-Demand 24/7 Incident Response provides end-to-end incident management guarantees that you’re prepared for the most advanced attacks. Through a combination of best-in-class digital forensics technology and the expertise of our elite incident responders, we provide the fastest threat suppression in the industry, suppressing any incident, anywhere in the world, within 4 hours. 

Contact us to learn more about eSentire Digital Forensics and Incident Response services.