Incident Response Platforms

The goal of cybersecurity programs is to keep attacks and data breaches from happening; but sometimes incidents happen anyway. Your organization likely has a plan in place in case of a cyberattack, but the aftermath of a data breach can be nerve wracking. Data may have been exposed, or you may not know if data has been exposed. In the aftermath of a breach, an incident response platform is an invaluable tool for your security team. 

An Overview of Incident Response and Incident Response Platforms

What is incident response? 

Incident response refers to any framework that helps a team manage attacks, threats, and breaches. There are several incident response frameworks, and they usually involve a structured approach to finding and containing a threat, with clearly-defined steps. 

What are the steps in incident response? 

A typical incident response process follows the following steps:

1. Preparation – Developing an incident response plan, setting up tools, training personnel, and defining roles.
2. Identification – Detecting and confirming a security incident through monitoring, alerts, and analysis.
3. Containment – Taking immediate steps to limit damage by isolating affected systems or blocking malicious activity.
4. Eradication – Removing the root cause of the incident, such as deleting malware or closing vulnerabilities.
5. Recovery – Restoring systems to normal operation and ensuring they are secure.
6. Lessons learned – Reviewing the incident, documenting findings, and improving security measures to prevent similar events.

What is an incident response platform? 

An incident response platform is software designed to help organizations efficiently detect, manage, and respond to cybersecurity incidents. It streamlines and automates various aspects of the incident response process — such as scanning for stolen data — ensuring faster and more effective threat containment and resolution.

Why are Incident Response Platforms Important Now? 

Why are incident response platforms necessary in today’s digital landscape? 

It can be difficult to be proactive in security; especially if your security team is constantly reacting to threats or attacks. Cyber defense platforms give your team a first line of defense, so when an incident occurs, your team can respond strategically. By using automation, your team can handle mitigation while more mundane tasks are handled by the platform. 

How can incident response platforms help stop breaches? 

Data breaches are often the source of more data breaches and attacks; information stolen in one breach can be used to attack again. A strong incident response platform provides your team with what they need to analyze an attack, mitigate threats, and prevent future attacks. For example, it may provide your team with the most relevant threat information, which helps your organization strengthen cyber defenses, hunt for related threats, remediate vulnerabilities that might allow for another similar attack, improve compliance, and streamline your cybersecurity processes. 

What is the impact of a data breach?

The average cost of a data breach is $4.88 million. This includes the cost of finding and remediating the breach, interruptions of operations, legal fees and other fines. There are other consequences as well: 

• Disruption of operations: Some threats, like ransomware attacks, may lock an organization out of its own data and systems, disrupting business operations. 
• Loss of proprietary or sensitive data: Attackers steal and take advantage of sensitive data, including personal information, intellectual property, and trade secrets. This data can be used for various malicious purposes, such as identity theft, industrial espionage, or future targeted attacks against the organization or its users.
• Reputational loss: A data breach can damage the reputation of an organization. Customers may lose trust in the company’s ability to protect their data and negative press may impact the public perception of a company.
• Legal consequences: Organizations that fail to protect user data often face legal and regulatory penalties. Data breach notification laws require companies to inform affected users and, in some cases, government agencies about security incidents. Additionally, organizations may be held liable for damages resulting from inadequate security measures, leading to potential lawsuits and fines.

How Does Flare Help with Incident Response? 

Why use an incident response platform after a breach? 

After a cyberattack, your team is in response mode. It’s their job to find and correct vulnerabilities, mitigate risks, and limit damage. Unfortunately, it may not be possible to immediately know if data has been exposed or stolen, which can lead to your analysts spending hours online, manually scanning the dark web and prominent threat actor communities for leaked data. This can take hours of their time, and expose them to potentially upsetting material posted on the dark web. An incident response platform automates that process, freeing up analysts for other, more demanding work. 

How does Flare’s incident response platform work? 

Flare’s platform is focused on bringing your team targeted, relevant threat intelligence; it automates the process of scanning for threats, data, and networks. Flare’s cyber defense platform continuously monitors the clear & dark web — as prominent threat actor communities — for leaked or stolen data, as well as any other information that can help your team prepare for a possible attack. Whenever your data — including the name of your organization, employees, or any other sensitive data — appears, Flare notifies your team so they can take action quickly and mitigate harm.

What do you get with Flare’s incident response platform? 

• Unmatched data collection: Flare uses billions of data points to provide your team with information about your organization’s security stance, relevant threats, and the movement of threat actors between platforms.
• Transparency: Flare lists every source so you know exactly where your threat intelligence data is coming from. 
• Translation: Using AI, Flare can translate alerts from all over the world.
• Automated continuous monitoring: Using an automated solution gives your team 24/7 coverage of your digital footprint and any risks that pose a threat. 
• Relevant alerts: Flare combats alert fatigue by delivering notifications only when a threat is relevant to your security.
• A proactive security stance: By actively seeking out potential threats, you can catch breaches early and take steps to protect your data, systems, and networks.
• Visibility into the deep and dark web: Flare’s monitoring solution scans the deep, dark, and clear web to find leaks before an attack happens.

Incident Response and Flare

The Flare Threat Exposure Management (TEM) solution empowers organizations to proactively detect, prioritize, and mitigate the types of exposures commonly exploited by threat actors. Our platform automatically scans the clear & dark web and prominent threat actor communities 24/7 to discover unknown events, prioritize risks, and deliver actionable intelligence you can use instantly to improve security. Flare scans the dark and deep web for leaks, saving your team time and energy that can be better used to plan ahead and mitigate risk.
Flare integrates into your security program in 30 minutes and often replaces several SaaS and open source tools. Learn more by signing up for our free trial.