Why We Need to Replay Our Cybersecurity Incidents

Replaying cybersecurity incidents means better insights, leading to improved security strategies for future protection 

There is one tool that you often want when it’s too late: the ability to replay cybersecurity incidents. This might sound counterintuitive. After all, once an incident has passed, the primary objective is to recover and move forward, right? While recovery is vital, replaying cybersecurity incidents can offer invaluable insights that strengthen an organization’s defenses. Let’s take some time to discuss why revisiting these incidents is paramount for robust cybersecurity.  

Understanding Incident Replay  

Before we delve into its significance, it’s essential to grasp what “replaying a cybersecurity incident” entails.  

Simply put, this process involves revisiting the chain of events in a cyberattack, analyzing every step taken and identifying which accounts and tools were used. By doing this, security teams and organizations can gain a far deeper understanding of the compromise, its origins, and its impacts.  

Benefits of Replaying Cybersecurity Incidents  

1. Holistic Understanding of the Incident: Real-time responses (while of it’s own value) can be hectic, and crucial details can be missed. By revisiting the incident, security teams can ensure they’ve captured the full picture, understanding not just the alerts triggered but the actions leading up to alerts and additional damage done before response occurred.
2. Improved Response Strategies: With hindsight’s clarity, teams can identify where they reacted effectively and where they could have acted faster or differently. This helps refine response protocols for future incidents. After an event, considering how the attacker moved around in an organization’s environment and how they traveled laterally between workloads or applications, through service accounts or privilege creep, is important knowledge for the future containment of any future attack.
3. Training Opportunities: Replaying incidents is a fantastic training tool. New and existing team members can learn from past experiences, understanding the logic behind decisions and improving their alert triage and response skills.
4. Strengthening Defense Policies: By revisiting how an attacker penetrated defenses, organizations can pinpoint gaps in protective policies and work specifically on bolstering those weak spots.
5. Validation of Tools and Technologies: Not all security tools will perform optimally in every situation. Replaying an incident can reveal which tools held up under pressure and which faltered, guiding future technology investments. 
6. Regulatory and Legal Compliance: Some regulations (like GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, NIST, PIPEDA, NYDFS, FISMA, NERC CIP, MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore), or Brazil’s LGPD) require detailed incident analyses and reports. Replaying the incident ensures the organization has comprehensive data to present if needed.  

The Value of Incident Review 

Consider a large energy corporation that experienced a data breach, leading to significant customer data leakage. 

In the chaos of real-time response, they might miss subtle signs or cues. But, by replaying the incident, they identify a previously overlooked phishing email that was the breach’s origin. With this knowledge, they can not only enhance their email filtering systems but also develop targeted training for employees about recognizing such threats. 

Tools and Technologies for Incident Replays 

Given the importance of this practice, several tools have emerged to facilitate incident replays. Advanced behavior analytics solutions, like our own, record all events, chain them together with context, and provide playback functionalities.   

Challenges in Incident Replays  

While the value is evident, replaying cybersecurity incidents is not without challenges:  

1. Data Overload: Modern businesses generate vast amounts of data. Sifting through this to pinpoint relevant information for a replay can be daunting.
2. Keeping Emotions at Bay: Reliving an incident, especially a severe one, can be emotionally taxing. It’s crucial to approach replays objectively, focusing on learning rather than laying any blame.
3. Time and Resource Constraints: Especially for businesses with limited resources, finding the time and resources for thorough incident replays can be challenging.  

Replay Cybersecurity Incidents for Strategic Improvement 

While the initial impulse after a cyberattack might be to move forward and leave the incident in the past, the lessons it holds can be gold mines for fortifying cybersecurity.  

By replaying cybersecurity incidents, organizations can glean insights, refine their strategies, and, ultimately, be better prepared for future threats. In the digital age, where cyber threats loom large and constant, looking back might be the key to moving forward more securely.