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Following a Crisis: Remediating Your Cybersecurity Incident Response

Wouter Veugelen, Ben Hamilton, Michael Khoury and Tim de Sousa discuss the critical remediation steps following a cyber incident. This includes investigating the root cause, data recovery, stakeholder communication and enhancing your incident response processes to help prevent future cyber incidents.

Once a cyber incident has been contained, the work is far from over. You must take critical steps to ensure a thorough recovery by assessing the recent incident and identifying gaps in your response processes. By doing so, you can enhance your data breach response planning and emerge stronger than ever.

Addressing the Root Cause

After containing the incident, it's crucial to address its root cause. Threat actors may have gained access by exploiting a technical vulnerability, such as a missing patch. Examining the broader issues can uncover deficiencies in patch management processes or weaknesses in user account management practices. Identifying and rectifying these underlying problems is essential to prevent future incidents.

Data Recovery During the Remediation Process

Cyber attacks can compromise not just data quality, but the data itself. For instance, malware that encrypts a large dataset, file server, or cloud application renders that data indecipherable. Remediation is essential to identify alternative data sources, like backups, to restore access to critical information.

Building Resilience Through Improved Incident Response

Taking swift, proactive steps to strengthen your response processes ensures your organisation emerges stronger and more resilient. This can include:

Drafting, rebuilding, or enhancing data breach or cyber incident response plans
Training new incident responders
Ensuring the board understands their role during an incident
Identifying and addressing areas where personal information has been over-retained, and defensively destroying or de-identifying that excess data

Communicating with Stakeholders After a Cyber Incident

Keep your stakeholders informed about the steps you've taken to strengthen security and prevent future incidents. Expect questions from internal teams, suppliers, customers, and regulators—be prepared to keep them fully informed on the actions you've taken.

FTI Consulting can support your cybersecurity incident response at every step. Find out more here.