What is incident response in cyber security [A step-by-step guide to perform the cybersecurity IRP]

Main Ideas / Concepts

• The video explains what a Cyber Security Incident Response Plan (IRP/CRP) is and why it matters for handling cyber incidents effectively.
• A good IRP must include stages (phases) and step-by-step actions so incidents can be:
  • detected,
  • contained,
  • removed,
  • recovered from,
  • and followed up with improvements.
• The “tricky part” is that companies should tailor the plan to their environment, including identifying which business aspects are most valuable and therefore most critical to protect.
• If a company can predict likely attack targets, it can improve its ability to defend against those specific attacks.

Step-by-Step Methodology (Stages to Include in Every CRP)

1) Preparation

• Ensure the organization has the necessary capabilities to identify an incident.

Key components:

• Adequate security staffing
• Security mechanisms and tools
• Knowledge of company resources

Identification depends on alerting mechanisms, such as:

• Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) alerts
• Web filtering gateways detecting suspicious external connections
• SIEM solutions correlating attacker activity across:
  • internal network movement
  • endpoints
• Endpoint alerts (e.g., phishing email opened)

2) Quick Reaction (Respond to Alerts)

• Use qualified security staff to:
  • escalate alerts
  • respond quickly when incident indicators appear

3) Containment (Stop Spread and Damage)

• Purpose: limit further malware spread and reduce additional harm (including data theft).
• Objective: contain the threat actor to focus on the next stages.

Example:

• Complete network containment of an infected machine by cutting its internet and intranet connections.

4) Eradication (Remove the Threat)

• Described as one of the most complex stages because it involves forensic analysis to determine what was present.

Actions include:

• determining the extent of presence of the threat actor
• eliminating all presence and access
• reimaging machines
• searching for backdoors

• performing root cause analysis

• The video notes that knowing the attack vector (how the attack happened) can simplify later eradication work.

5) Recovery (Restore Normal Operations)

• Happens after eradication.
• Goal: get infected systems back up and running to reduce monetary loss from downtime.

Example scenario:

• A single infected computer might not severely impact the company,
• but ransomware affecting an office with many employees’ computers can cause major revenue loss—so rapid security-team action matters.

6) Lessons Learned (Improve and Close Gaps)

• Purpose: ensure the organization understands:
  • how the incident occurred
  • how to prevent recurrence by closing the exploited weakness (“close that tag/vector”)

Examples of mitigation/improvement actions mentioned:

• closing unnecessary open ports and services
• implementing dual-factor authentication
• limiting exposure of internal resources
• increasing network segmentation

Sources / Speakers Featured

• No specific named speaker or source is identified in the subtitles.
• The video appears to be narrated by an unidentified presenter/author of the channel.