Despite a security team’s best efforts, any number or threats can emerge and cause significant issues impacting people, operations, assets, reputations, and even the bottom line. While disruptive incidents are inevitable, there are specific steps a security team can and should take to minimize any negative impacts.
One of the most useful tools is the incident management lifecycle. The incident lifecycle is a set of steps designed to help teams detect, resolve, and learn from issues they have faced. The goal is to learn of problems before they arise so disruptions can be mitigated and minimized. In cases where disruptive events are unavoidable, the steps focus on restoring normal operations as quickly as possible.
While some teams may still be using manual processes, these are outdated and largely ineffective in today’s fast-paced threat environment. Instead, organizations should be turning to technology-driven platforms that can effectively streamline an incident management lifecycle—helping them avoid service disruptions and enjoy seamless operations even in a volatile geopolitical world.
The Incident Management Process Challenge: Why Traditional Approaches Fall Short
As one might assume, traditional security strategies and incident management centers around human-driven tactics. This includes manual, siloed data collection. Before the advent of innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP), manual data review and sorting were necessary. However, it almost always resulted in delayed incident detection and incomplete analysis.
In decades past, this was the only route to take. The necessary technology solutions simply didn’t exist on an accessible scale. Today there is an entire industry centered around the development of platforms and software solutions that make it possible for security teams to forgo manual data complication. With access to real-time insights, security teams can share important insights and findings with leaders in a timely manner. As a result, leaders are privy to better, more informed decision making.
Not only are traditional, manual processes time-consuming, but they also fail to extract all available information from past incidents—sometimes even overlooking the root cause analysis needed to prevent recurrence. Another shortcoming of traditional incident management is inefficient communication and collaboration—teams are often too busy in the trenches to properly disseminate information. Modern solutions address these gaps to ensure a streamlined, resolution process that supports the entire business.
Enhancing Each Stage of the Incident Response Plan with Intelligence
When organizations decide to forgo traditional incident management and adopt modern processes that make the most of technology, automation, and expert input, the benefits are endless. However, teams still need to maintain a strategic point of view throughout the incident response process. The following steps will help teams properly complete their incident management lifecycle.
Step One: Preparation
Predictive threat intelligence solutions that leverage AI, ML, and NLP help teams anticipate potential incidents and allow for proactive planning and resource allocation. When organizations are prepared, they can reduce the impact of almost any catastrophe or unplanned interruption.
To achieve a prepared state, security teams should analyze past incidents and disruptions to flag repeating issues and eliminate them at the root. Regular evaluations help teams keep recurring problems at bay. Another way to strengthen readiness is to provide training focused on risk and security threats. When an entire organization understands both their role and the broader landscape, they can better help prevent future incidents.
Step Two: Detection & Analysis
Technologies like AI and ML can process vast amounts of data in real time—faster than any analyst or team of analysts ever could. This allows for early detection, identification, and incident escalation when needed. It also helps spot new trends that could turn into problems later.
Organizations often partner with third-party experts. Most internal security teams need the support of intelligence platforms that integrate seamlessly with operations. The right partner not only relieves security teams from time-consuming tasks but also offers tools for reporting, historical analysis, and expert insight—all of which enhance overall incident response capability.
Step Three: Containment & Eradication
Actionable intelligence provides the critical context needed to make faster, more informed decisions during an active incident.
A security team’s job is to help leaders make the best decisions in times of crisis. The right data and intelligence are imperative to achieving this goal and impossible without modern solutions. When leaders have the right information at hand, they can best determine the steps to take to keep a crisis from escalating, prioritize high priority incidents, and manage low priority incidents efficiently. This approach keeps disruptions from affecting business critical services and aids in the eradication of the root cause.
Step Four: Recovery
When an incident arises, teams need to understand the how, why, and what behind an issue to inform their incident resolution strategy and return to normal operations faster.
Modern intelligence solutions offer the best data in seconds. Teams can compile insights on incident severity, understand the impact on the entire business, and build their recovery plan from there. Additionally, many intelligence platforms offer visual dashboards to help security teams manage complex scenarios and report on progress clearly to leadership.
Step Five: Post-Incident Review
Advanced analytics help incident response teams close the loop on an event by providing a comprehensive view of what occurred and guiding post event activity. Understanding historical events is essential to improving future responses.
Committed security teams realize that there are endless learning opportunities from every event. While technology is essential for real-time monitoring, it can be just as valuable to review past minor incidents or larger disruptions for overlooked insights. Historical analysis often reveals lessons that can improve planning, communication, and risk mitigation moving forward.
From Reactive to Resilient: The Benefits of Streamlining the Lifecycle
Why should an organization support its security team in streamlining the incident response life cycle? There are several key benefits. First and foremost is faster response and reduced impact. This is the end goal of every security leader.
The reason why modern solutions lead to faster response and reduced impact is due to improved situational awareness. When incident managers are continuously reviewing data that highlights trends and emerging events, they remain ahead of issues and can guide leaders’ decision-making in a timely and informed manner, thereby minimizing harm for the business at large.
Another benefit is increased efficiency. Automated solutions that leverage technology like AI, and that support augmented analytics, which is the fusion of machine-driven data with expert human analysis, reduce the burden on security and risk teams. Teams that are relieved from manual data sorting and alert fatigue have more time to focus on strategy.
Cost savings is also a great output of modern incident management tools. Armed with insight to help avoid issues allows teams to put the best mitigation plans in place that ladder back to budget and business goals. By circumventing or minimizing major issues, organizations can achieve faster recovery and avoid significant costs.
A fourth benefit of streamlining the lifecycle with the aid of modern technology solutions is enhanced organizational resilience. A streamlined incident management process builds a more robust and prepared organization.
Conclusion: The Future of Incident Management Is Proactive
Modern technology, such as augmented analytics and predictive threat intelligence, transforms the incident management lifecycle from a reactive process. The result is a team that is no longer reactive but is able to plan strategically and support a resilient mindset. By leveraging innovative solutions, organizations can respond faster to future major incidents, provide more informed guidance to decision-makers, and keep their people, assets, and operations on track despite risks faced.
If your organization is stuck in reactive-mode and wants to discuss how an advanced, intelligence-led solution can help navigate a volatile and ever-changing risk and threat landscape, it might be helpful to explore an advanced risk and threat intelligence solution like Seerist. Seerist works to bring clarity and speed through AI analytics and expert human insights to help organizations achieve decision confidence in any disruption.
