6 techniques for better incident response
The ITIL definition of an incident is “an unplanned interruption to or a reduction in quality of an IT Service or unavailability of the service”. An incident could be caused by an asset that is not functioning properly or a network failure, or a human error. Here are some examples of incidents—issues with the printer, Wi-Fi connectivity, application locks, email service, laptop, file sharing with unauthorized recipients, authentication errors, security breaches, cyberattacks, and more. Incident response or IR is the systematic approach that assists IT & Security teams, to plan better for such incidents.
If conducted smoothly, the incident response process ensures that there is minimal to no downtime. The end goal is to ensure that the impact/damage on business is minimized and that normal operations are restored within SLA. Security-related incidents can be particularly harmful as they can cause the destruction of data, violations of confidentiality, reduced productivity, and ultimately, massive losses in finances and reputation.