How Incident Response Retainer Brings Value to Businesses

How-Incident-Response-Retainer-Brings-Value-to-Businesses

One consequence of a security breach is the leakage of classified information and the disruption of business activities. Significantly, a data breach can damage a company’s reputation. Recovery from a security breach and the prevention of such incidents can be dependent on third-party incident response services, otherwise known as Incident Response Retainer (IR Retainer). IR Retainer brings value to businesses while also helping to improv their level of cyber resilience and mitigating threats. It thoroughly examines and documents the breach’s circumstances to enhance the systems’ capacity to resist future attacks.

IR Retainer is one of the most widely used threat prevention and response methods of businesses worldwide. It contains a strategy to detect, limit, and mitigate possible exploitation that is methodical in its approach. The primary goal of an IR Retainer is to bring value to businesses by limiting the damage caused by any cyber assault. It helps to achieve recovery faster and present and communicate a plan while conducting an investigation. In any cyberattack, businesses may mitigate the damage by implementing rapid pre-planned incident response measures from documented attacks.

Two Types of IR Retainers

On-demand IR Retainer – In the event of an incident, an on-demand agreement with a vendor or service provider outlines how they would assist the organization in responding to the issue, if and when it happens. An agreed-upon service level agreement (SLA) that contains the type of services, the process for reporting problems, and a fee per occurrence is executed. Fees are only paid if the service provider provides services specified in the agreement.

Pre-paid IR Retainer – In this incident response agreement, the organization pre-pays the service provider for a certain number of hours, usually per month or per quarter. It may be utilized to react to cyber events according to an established SLA. Typically, if the service provider’s hours are not fully used, the provider will provide additional essential security services, such as penetration testing or security education for the organization’s employees.

 

With LIFARS on retainer a cybersecurity incident or a data breach will be handled with the highest priority under strict SLAs. Have your own Computer Security Incident Response Team on call and ready for deployment as your private 911 cyber-emergency. Repurpose unused hours for one of our proactive or advisory services and strengthen your security posture to make the most of your investment.

 

Why Is It Necessary to Rely on Incident Response Services?

An intelligent approach, active monitoring, and thorough risk analysis are all practices that all organizations must do to get ahead in cybersecurity. When dealing with time-consuming but essential duties of company security management, having a competent forensic threat detection incident response team by your side may be a huge benefit. That not only helps you proactively deal with security issues but also aids you in reducing the effect of a breach and expedites the recovery of relevant data.

Early identification and reaction must become a higher priority as the consequences and severity of security breaches grow. However, most IT security teams are already overburdened, and some companies are entirely lacking in security knowledge. That increases the likelihood of an assailant being on the scene for an extended period and causing more severe harm. With a pre-arranged contract, having a team on standby reduces the length and effect of a cyber security breach and avoids the need for expensive delays.

Likewise, the IR retainer can also bring value to businesses as the threat hunting team comprises forensic investigators with years of industry expertise in dealing with security events. When it comes to identifying the root cause of a breach, controlling it proactively to limit the damage, and reducing the effect to ground zero without any data loss, most of them have already formulated an ultra-reactive strategy.

The Values of IR Retainers Brings to Your Company

  • Preparedness – An IR Retainer will understand any application architecture, cloud infrastructure, and database system and improve incident response readiness.
  • Simulated Attacks – With the use of simulated attack exercises, you may better understand cyber vulnerabilities and discover security holes. Modern incident response systems put corporate defenses to the test against a constantly changing set of threats.
  • Regular Threat Monitoring – IR Retainer will analyze your system logs regularly and give you a comprehensive report on the condition of your system. The assessments on the security conditions of network servers aid in identifying existing abnormalities in the system and develop a secure server.
  • IR Playbook – An extensive description of how to audit the system and the processes and procedures followed when dealing with a security breach will be included in the Incident Response Playbook. Moreover, it contributes to a better understanding of risk detection and proactive responses to dangers.
  • Education and Training – As part of the IR Retainer services, first responder training is given to IT or cybersecurity personnel, allowing them to become more aware of the shifting threats and take proactive steps to cope with assaults in the future.

Final Thoughts

Detecting and responding to a data breach or even any cybersecurity event as soon as possible reduces your organization’s risk of a significant effect on its data. It also boosts customer confidence and reputation while lowering the possibility of revenue loss. Suppose your organization does not have an incident response process in place, then now is the time to act. In that case, you should always consider using a third-party IR retainer to develop a tailored strategy for your company’s unique needs and circumstances.

 

References:

1. https://www.lifars.com/incident-response-retainer/