Cloud Incident Response

Incident response (IR) is the practice of managing cybersecurity incidents within an organization’s environment. This includes detecting, investigating, containing, remediating, and recovering from a potential cyberattack or other security incident.

As organizations adopt cloud computing and move data and applications to cloud environments, they also need to have the ability to manage cloud security incidents. Cloud incident response is the process of managing these incidents in an environment that differs significantly from the on-prem, company-owned systems that many organizations are accustomed to managing.

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How Cloud IR is Different from Traditional Incident Response

Incident response in the cloud works very differently from on-prem environments. The reason for this is that the cloud itself is different from a traditional, on-prem data center. In the cloud, the company doesn’t own the underlying infrastructure and only has remote access to systems.

This has significant impacts on how cloud IR works. Without access to the underlying infrastructure, incident responders can’t use many of the same tools and techniques as in on-prem environments. Remote access also has impacts on how the organization can investigate, contain, and remediate the incident.

Benefits of Cloud IR

While the differences between cloud IR and on-prem IR indeed introduce challenges, there are benefits to cloud IR that are worth noting:

  • Simplified Data Management: Cloud incident responders can take advantage of the same cloud flexibility and scalability as its other users. Incident responders can easily make backups of critical data for later investigation and can take advantage of virtual machine (VM) snapshots to save system states for later analysis.
  • Rapid Response: Cloud environments rely on virtualization, including VMs and virtual networking. This makes it fast and easy for incident responders to contain an incident or remediate one by rolling back a virtual machine to a known-good state.

Main Challenges of Cloud IR

Companies use cloud environments for many of the same purposes as traditional, on-prem data centers. However, the cloud is very different from these environments, creating significant security challenges.

Some of the ways that incident response differs in the cloud include:

    • Lack of Physical Access: Often, incident responders will use physical access to systems to contain the incident or collect forensic data. In cloud environments, the infrastructure is owned and managed by the cloud provider, and customers will not have access to the physical servers hosting their data and applications.
    • Rapid Development Lifecycles: Cloud environments encourage the use of DevOps development processes where programmers make rapid, regular updates to software. These updates can result in changes to cloud infrastructure as companies spin up or take down cloud infrastructure as its needs evolve. These rapid changes complicate incident response because the infrastructure to investigate changes rapidly, and virtual machines involved in the incident may have already been deleted.
    • Lack of Control: Companies lack ownership and control over their cloud environments, meaning that incident responders may not be able to use familiar tools and techniques in their investigations. Additionally, the risk of shadow IT in cloud environments may mean that incidents are caused by cloud environments set up by employees with IT knowledge or oversight.
    • Subject Matter Expertise: Since cloud environments and cloud IR differ significantly from on-prem, companies may struggle to find experts with the knowledge and abilities needed to perform IR effectively in the cloud.
  • Lack of Visibility: Cloud environments are often highly complex and dynamic, making it challenging to maintain full visibility into all assets and activities. Monitoring and tracking resources across multiple cloud providers and regions can be difficult, increasing the chances of missing security incidents.
  • Data and Evidence gathering: Data and evidence gathering can be easy due to that use of VM’s. However, the downsides on the otherhand of it is, that it can be that logs can be/needs to be found in a variety of places, especially in multi cloud environments it is a challenge.

Cloud IR Best Practices

IR in the cloud differs from traditional environments. Some best practices to enhance the effectiveness of the incident response team (IRT) in the cloud include:

  • Be Proactive: Perform regular risk assessments and security audits in cloud environments. This will allow the IRT to identify vulnerabilities and close these security gaps before they can be exploited by an attacker.
  • Leverage Automation: Use automated monitoring to detect and correct security misconfigurations in cloud environments. This allows the IRT to quickly find and fix issues before they become a security incident.
  • Select Tools: Traditional incident response tools may not work in the cloud. Select tools that will work in cloud environments and train IRT members on how to use them effectively.
  • Train on the Cloud: Cloud environments differ from on-prem data centers. Train IRT members on these differences and how to effectively collect data and remediate incidents in cloud environments.

Cloud IR with Infinity Global Services

Incident response in the cloud can be different from other environments. One of the most common challenges that companies face is finding incident responders with the knowledge and expertise necessary to investigate and remediate security incidents in the cloud.

Check Point Infinity Global offers cloud incident response support as part of its professional services portfolio. You’re welcome to learn more about how Check Point can assist your organization in managing a potential security incident within its cloud infrastructure.

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