Incident response plan to emerging threats in 2024

Cyberthreats evolve with time, increasing the need for organizations to have a robust incident response plan. In 2024, advanced persistent threats (APTs), ransomware, and sophisticated social engineering attacks will make the threat landscape complicated. A proper incident response plan has to ensure rapid recovery and reduce the impact of cyberattacks. Taking proactive measures, often overlooked, is as important as emphasizing prevention. 

This way, you will safeguard your assets while ensuring continuity for the entire enterprise. In this blog post, we will discuss what an incident response plan should comprise to best address the issues at hand by 2024. 

What is an incident response plan, and why does an organization need one? 

An Incident Response Plan (IRP) explains what an organization has to do during a cybersecurity incident. The event could have resulted from data breaches, malware outbreaks, phishing scams, or any kind of other cyber threat. An IRP aims to manage such incidents and ensure their aftermath is not long-lasting by providing quick recoveries. It explains the roles and responsibilities of the members required during the recovery process. 

Why does an organization need an IRP? 

An efficient Incident Response Plan minimizes downtime and financial losses by ensuring a speedy recovery. 

• It promotes consumer trust and protects the organization’s reputation. 
• An IRP is a requirement in many industries to ensure compliance with regulations. 

How to Create an Incident Response Plan: 

1. Establish and train a cyber security operations center team with respective policies and procedures. 

2. Monitor the environment continuously to identify any attacks and create an alert. 

3. The next step is to address how incident response teams can stop incidents from spreading further. 

4. Analyze the incident to formulate better strategies or plan effective measures. This will help prevent similar occurrences in the future. 

5. The recovery process to help restore everything to normal operation. 

Is your incident response plan (IRP) effective for the threat landscape in 2024? 

Here is how you can find out if your incident response plan can handle the latest threats in 2024: 

1. Investigate recent threats: Examine the recent cyber security trends and patterns of attacks reported by agencies such as the CISA or the FBI. 
2. Conduct regular assessments: Regularly monitor and evaluate your IRP to identify gaps and areas for constant improvement. You can identify gaps through cybersecurity security drills and penetration testing. 
3. Benchmark Against Standards: Measure the effectiveness of your IRP against standards set by the leading cybersecurity bodies, including NIST and ISO. 
4. Collect feedback: Get in touch with your stakeholders and incident response teams. Get their opinions on the IRP's functionality and areas for improvement. 

How do you update your IRP to stay ahead of the threat landscape in 2024? 

Your Incident Response Plan (IRP) has to be improved or updated as per changes in the external threat environment and their impact. 

Here are a few measures to take in order to have an IRP that is relevant to 2024 threats: 

1. Analyze prevailing threat trends: Assess recent cyber incidents in other organizations to get an idea of common types of attacks. Determine how effectively your IRP will address such events. 
2. Regularly provide training to your team: Make sure that everyone on the team understands the incident response strategy. Schedule frequent training sessions to go over the plan, explain roles and duties, and reinforce established practices. 
3. Seek help of consultants: It is advisable to consult professionals or experts in the cyber security field and sign a retainer agreement with them. This ensures the quick provision of expert advice during any incident. 
4. Update vendor contacts: Keep the vendor contacts up-to-date. Quick communication with vendors is crucial during an incident. 

How Can FourD (CEI) Help? 

With decades of experience, we handle security incidents in diverse industries. We have extensive knowledge of cybersecurity threats, attack techniques, and response strategies. We aid organizations with the creation and enhancement of their incident response plans.  

Contact us to learn how we can help protect your bottom line with a customized incident response plan.  

Author Lavanya Devakumar