Organizations remain unprepared and without a formal plan to respond to cyber security incidents, according to the annual Global Threat Intelligence Report (GTIR) published by NTT Com Security, an NTT Group company. Analysing global threat trends since 2013, the 2016 report reveals that there has been little improvement in preparedness , with the latest figures indicating a slight increase in organizations that are not properly prepared, despite the rise in security attacks and data breaches.
The GTIR finds that over the last three years, on average 77 percent of organizations fall into the ‘unprepared’ category, leaving just 23 percent with the capability to respond effectively to critical security incidents.
“Prevention and planning for cyber security incidents seems to be stagnating, according to the figures in both the GTIR and our recent Risk:Value report,” says Garry Sidaway, VP Security Strategy & Alliances, NTT Com Security. “This is a real concern and could be down to a number of reasons, not least the possibility of security fatigue – too many high profile security breaches, information overload and conflicting advice – combined with the sheer pace of technology change, lack of investment and increased regulation.
“Facing security challenges that didn’t exist last year, let alone a decade ago, and struggling with a shortfall in information security professionals, many organizations no longer have the necessary skills or resources to cope. Our mantra is prevention is better than cure and get the security basics right, including having a clear, well-communicated incident response plan.”
Although financial services was the leading sector for incident response in previous annual GTIR reports, the retail sector now takes the lead, with 22 percent of all response engagements, up from 12 percent the previous year. Retail – a popular target due to processing large volumes of personal information such as credit card details – experienced the highest number of attacks per client.
Other incident response statistics from the 2016 GTIR include:
- The report shows an increase in breach investigations, with 28 percent in 2015 compared to 16 percent the previous year, with many incidents focused on theft of data and intellectual property.
- Internal threats jumped to 19 percent of overall investigations – from two percent in 2014. Many of these were the result of employees and contractors abusing information and computing assets.
- Spear phishing attacks accounted for approximately 17 percent of incident response activities in 2015, up from 2 percent previously. Many of these attacks related to financial fraud targeting executives and finance personnel, with attackers using clever social engineering tactics, such as getting organisations to pay fake invoices.
- Despite a rise in DDoS hacking groups like DD4BC and Armada Collective, the GTIR noted a drop in DDoS related activity compared to the previous two years. This is likely to be due to an investment in DDoS mitigation tools and services.
Incident response recommendations:
1. Prepare incident management processes and ‘run books’
Many organizations have limited guidelines describing how to declare and classify incidents even though these are critical to ensure a response can be initiated. Depending on the type of attack, potential impact and other factors, response activities will be very different for each. Common practices for incident response also suggest organizations should develop run books to address how common incidents should be handled in their environment.
2. Evaluate your response effectiveness
When incidents occur the last thing you want is to lack an understanding of standard incident response operating procedures. Evaluation of preparedness should include regular test scenarios. Consider post-mortem reviews to document and build upon response activities that worked well, as well as areas needing improvement.
3. Update escalation rosters
As organizations grow and roles change, it is important to update documentation related to who is involved in incident response activities. Time is critical to incident response and not being able to quickly involve the correct people can hamper your effectiveness. Updating contact information for vendors such as your ISP, external incident response support, and other providers is just as important.
4. Prepare technical documentation
To make accurate decisions and identify impacted systems, you must have comprehensive and accurate details about your network.
