Learn More About Incident Response Software
What is Incident Response Software?
Incident response software, sometimes called security incident management software, is a security technology used to remediate cybersecurity issues as they arise in real time. These tools discover incidents and alert the relevant IT and security staff to resolve the security issue. Additionally, the tools allow teams to develop workflows, delegate responsibilities, and automate low-level tasks to optimize response time and minimize the impact of security incidents.
These tools also document historical incidents and help provide context to the users attempting to understand the root cause to remediate security issues. When new security issues arise, users can take advantage of forensic investigation tools to root out the cause of the incident and see if it will be an ongoing or larger overall issue. Many incident response software also integrate with other security tools to simplify alerting, string together workflows, and provide additional threat intelligence.
What Types of Incident Response Software Exist?
Pure incident response solutions
Pure incident response solutions are the last line of defense in the security ecosystem. Only once threats go unseen and vulnerabilities are exposed, do incident response systems come into play. Their main focus is facilitating the remediation of compromised accounts, system penetrations, and other security incidents. These products store information related to common and emerging threats while documenting each occurrence for retrospective analysis. Some incident response solutions are also connected to live feeds to gather global information related to emerging threats.
Incident management and response
Incident management products offer many similar administrative features to incident response products, but other tools combine incident management, alerting, and response capabilities. These tools are often used in DevOps environments to document, track, and source security incidents from their emergence to their remediation.
Incident management tracking and service tools
Other incident management tools have more of a service management focus. These tools will track security incidents, but won’t allow users to build security workflows, remediate issues, or provide forensic investigation features to determine the root cause of the incident.
What are the Common Features of Incident Response Software?
Incident response software can provide a wide range of features, but some of the most common include:
Workflow management: Workflow management features let administrators organize workflows that help guide remediation staff and provide information related to specific situations and incident types.
Workflow automation: Workflow automation allows teams to streamline the flow of work processes by establishing triggers and alerts that notify and route information to the appropriate people when their action is required within the compensation process.
Incident database: Incident databases document historical incident activity. Administrators can access and organize data related to incidents to produce reports or make data more navigable.
Incident alerting: Alerting features inform relevant individuals when incidents happen in real time. Some responses may be automated but users will still be informed.
Incident reporting: Reporting features produce reports detailing trends and vulnerabilities related to their network and infrastructure.
Incident logs: Historical incident logs are stored in the incident database and is used for user reference and analytics while remediating security incidents.
Threat intelligence: Threat intelligence tools, which are often combined with forensic tools, provide an integrated information feed detailing the cybersecurity threats as they’re discovered across the world. This information is gathered either internally or by a third-party vendor and is used to provide further information on remedies.
Security orchestration: Orchestration refers to the integration of security solutions and automation of processes in a response workflow.
Automated remediation: Automation addresses security issues in real time and reduces the time spent remedying issues manually. It also helps resolve common network and system security incidents quickly.
What are the Benefits of Incident Response Software?
The main value of incident response technology is an increased ability to discover and resolve cybersecurity incidents. These are a few valuable components of the incident response process.
Threat modeling: Information security and IT departments can use these tools to gain familiarity with the incident response process and develop workflows before security incident occurrences. This allows companies to stand prepared to quickly discover, resolve, and learn from security incidents and how they impact business-critical systems.
Alerting: Without proper alerting and communication channels, many security threats can penetrate networks and remain undetected for extended periods. During that time, hackers, internal threat actors, and other cybercriminals can steal sensitive and other business-critical data and wreak havoc on IT systems. Proper alerting and communication can greatly shorten the time necessary to discover, inform relevant staff, and eradicate incidents.
Isolation: Incident response platforms allow security teams to contain incidents quickly when alerted properly. Isolating infected systems, networks, and endpoints can greatly reduce an incident’s scope of impact. If isolated properly, security professionals can monitor the activity of affected systems to learn more about the threat actors, their capabilities, and their goals.
Remediation: Remediation is the key to incident response and refers to the actual removal of threats such as malware and escalated privileges, among others. Incident response tools will facilitate the removal and allow teams to verify recovery before reintroducing infected systems or returning to normal operations.
Investigation: Investigation allows teams and companies to learn more about why they were attacked, how they were attacked, and what systems, applications, and data were negatively impacted. This information can help companies respond to compliance information requests, bolster security in vulnerable areas, and resolve similar, future issues, in less time.
Who Uses Incident Response Software?
Information security (InfoSec) professionals: InfoSec professionals use incident response software to monitor, alert, and remediate security threats to a company. Using incident response software, InfoSec professionals can automate and quickly scale their response to security incidents, above and beyond what teams can do manually.
IT professionals: For companies without dedicated information security teams, IT professionals may take on security roles. Professionals with limited security backgrounds may rely on incident response software with the more robust functionality to assist them in identifying threats, their decision making when security incidents arise, and threat remediation.
Incident response service providers: Practitioners at incident response service providers use incident response software to actively manage their client’s security, as well as other providers of managed security services.
What are the Alternatives to Incident Response Software?
Companies that prefer to string together open-source or other various software tools to achieve the functionality of incident response software can do so with a combination of log analysis, SIEM, intrusion detection systems, vulnerability scanners, backup, and other tools. Conversely, companies may wish to outsource the management of their security programs to managed service providers.
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) software: They combine both endpoint antivirus and endpoint management solutions to detect, investigate, and remove any malicious software that penetrates a network’s devices.
Managed detection and response (MDR) software: They proactively monitor networks, endpoints, and other IT resources for security incidents.
Extended detection and response (XDR) software: They are tools used to automate the discovery and remediation of security issues across hybrid systems.
Incident response services providers: For companies that do not want to purchase and manage their incident response in-house or develop their open-source solutions, they can employ incident response services providers.
Log analysis software: Log analysis software helps enable the documentation of application log files for records and analytics.
Log monitoring software: By detecting and alerting users to patterns in these log files, log monitoring software helps solve performance and security issues.
Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS): IDPS is used to inform IT administrators and security staff of anomalies and attacks on IT infrastructure and applications. These tools detect malware, socially engineered attacks, and other web-based threats.
Security information and event management (SIEM) software: SIEM software can offer security information alerting, along with centralizing security operations into one platform. However, SIEM software cannot automate remediation practices like some incident response software does, however. For companies that do not want to manage SIEM in-house, they can work with managed SIEM service providers.
Threat intelligence software: Threat intelligence software provides organizations with information related to the newest forms of cyber threats like zero-day attacks, new forms of malware, and exploits. Companies may wish to work with threat intelligence services providers, as well.
Vulnerability scanner software: Vulnerability scanners are tools that constantly monitor applications and networks to identify security vulnerabilities. They work by maintaining an up-to-date database of known vulnerabilities, and conduct scans to identify potential exploits. Companies may opt to work with vulnerability assessment services providers, instead of managing this in-house.
Patch management software: Patch management tools are used to ensure that the components of a company’s software stack and IT infrastructure are up to date. They then alert users of necessary updates or execute updates automatically.
Backup software: Backup software offers protection for business data by copying data from servers, databases, desktops, laptops, and other devices in case user error, corrupt files, or physical disaster render a business’ critical data inaccessible. In the event of data loss from a security incident, data can be restored to its previous state from a backup.
Software Related to Incident Response Software
The following technology families are either closely related to incident response software products or have significant overlap between product functionality.
Security information and event management (SIEM) software: SIEM platforms go together with incident response solutions. Incident response may be facilitated by SIEM systems but these tools are specifically designed to streamline the remediation process or add investigative capabilities during security workflow processes. Incident response solutions will not provide the same level of compliance maintenance or log storage capabilities but can be used to increase a team’s ability to tackle threats as they emerge.
Data breach notification software: Data breach notification software helps companies document the impacts of data breaches to inform regulatory authorities and notify impacted individuals. These solutions automate and operationalize the data breach notification process to adhere to strict data disclosure laws and privacy regulations within mandated timelines, which in some instances can be as few as 72 hours.
Digital forensics software: Digital forensics tools are used to investigate and examine security incidents and threats after they’ve occurred. They don’t facilitate the actual remediation of security incidents but they can provide additional information on the source and scope of a security incident. They also may offer more in-depth investigatory information than incident response software.
Security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) software: SOAR is a segment of the security market focused on automating all low-level security tasks. These tools integrate with a company’s SIEM to gather security information. They then integrate with monitoring and response tools to develop an automated workflow from discovery to resolution. Some incident response solutions will allow for workflow development and automation but don’t have a wide range of integration and automation capabilities of a SOAR platform.
Insider threat management (ITM) software: Companies use ITM software to monitor and record the actions of internal system users on their endpoints, such as current and former employees, contractors, business partners, and other permissioned individuals, to protect company assets, such as customer data or intellectual property.
Challenges with Incident Response Software
Software solutions can come with their own set of challenges. The biggest challenge incident response teams may encounter with the software is ensuring that it meets the business’ unique process requirements.
False positives: Incident response software may identify a threat that turns out to be inaccurate, which is known as a false positive. Acting on false positives can waste company resources, time, and create unnecessary downtime for impacted individuals.
Decision making: Incident response software can automate remediation to some security threats, however, a security professional with knowledge of the company’s unique environment should weigh in on the decision-making process on how to handle automating these issues. This may require that companies consult with the software vendor and purchase additional professional services for deploying the software solution. Similarly, when designing workflows on who to alert in the event of a security incident and what actions to take and when, these must be designed with the organization’s specific security needs in mind.
Changes in regulatory compliance: It is important to stay up to date with changes in regulatory compliance laws, especially concerning data breach notification requirements for who to notify and within what time frame. Companies should also ensure the software provider is providing the necessary updates to the software itself, or work to handle this task operationally.
Insider threats: Many companies focus on external threats, but may not appropriately plan for threats from insiders like employees, contractors, and others with privileged access. It’s important to ensure the Incident Response solution addresses the company’s unique security risk environment, for both external and internal incidents.
How to Buy Incident Response Software
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Incident Response Software
It is important to gather the company’s requirements before starting the search for an incident response software solution. To have an effective incident response program, the company must utilize the right tools to support their staff and security practices. Things to consider when determining the requirements include:
Enabling staff responsible for using the software: The team that is tasked with managing this software and the company’s incident response should be heavily involved in gathering requirements and then assessing software solutions.
Integrations: The software solution should integrate with the company’s existing software stack. Many vendors provide pre-built integrations with the most common third-party systems. The company must ensure the integrations they require are either offered pre-built by the vendor or can be built with ease.
Usability: The software should be easy to use for the incident response team. Features they may prefer in an incident response solution include, out-of-the-box workflows for common incidents, no-code automation workflow builders, decision-process visualization, communication tools, and a knowledge sharing center.
Daily volume of threats: It is important to select an incident response software solution that can meet the company’s level of need. If the volume of security threats received in a day is high, it may be better to select a tool with robust functionality in terms of automating remediation to reduce the burden on staff. For companies experiencing a low volume of threats, they may be able to get by with less robust tools that offer security incident tracking, without much automated remediation functionality.
Applicable regulations: Users should learn specific privacy, security, data breach notification, and other regulations apply to a business in advance. This may be regulation-driven, like companies operating in regulated industries like healthcare subject to HIPAA or financial services subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA); it may be geographic like companies subject to GDPR in the European Union; or it may be industry-specific, like companies adhering to payment card industry security standards like the Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS).
Data breach notification requirements: It is imperative to determine what security incidents may be reportable data breaches and whether the specific data breach must be reported to regulators, affected individuals, or both. The incident response software solution selected should enable the incident response team to meet these requirements.
Compare Incident Response Software Products
Create a long list
Users can research incident response software providers on G2.com where they can find information such as verified software user reviews and vendor rankings based on user satisfaction and software segment sizes, such as small, medium, or enterprise businesses. It’s also possible to sort software solutions by languages supported.
Users can save any software products that meet their high-level requirements to their “My List” on G2 by selecting the “favorite” heart symbol on the software’s product page. Saving the selections to the G2 My List will enable users to reference their selections again in the future.
Create a short list
Users can visit their “My List” on G2.com to begin narrowing down their selection. G2 offers a product compare feature, where buyers can evaluate software features side by side based on real user rankings.
They can also review G2.com’s quarterly software reports which have in-depth detail on the software user’s perception of their return on investment (in months), the time it took to implement their software solution, usability rankings, and other factors.
Conduct demos
Users can see the product they’ve narrowed down live by scheduling demonstrations. Many times, they can schedule demos directly through G2.com by clicking the “Get a quote” button on the vendor’s product profile.
They can share their list of requirements and questions with the vendor in advance of their demo. It’s best to use a standard list of questions for each demonstration to ensure a fair comparison between each vendor on the same factors.
Selection of Incident Response Software
Choose a selection team
Incident response software will likely be managed by InfoSec teams or IT teams. The people responsible for the day-to-day use of these tools must be a part of the selection team.
Others who may be beneficial to include on the selection team include professionals from the service desk, network operations, identity and access, application management, privacy, compliance, and legal teams.
Negotiation
Most incident response software will be sold as a SaaS on a subscription or usage basis. Pricing will likely depend on the functions required by an organization. For example, log monitoring may be priced by the GB, while vulnerability assessments may be priced by the asset. Oftentimes, buyers can get discounts if they enter contracts for a longer duration.
Negotiating on implementation, support packages, and other professional services is also important. It is particularly important to set the incident response software up correctly when it is first deployed, especially when it comes to creating automated remediation actions and designing workflows.
Final decision
Before purchasing software, most vendors allow a free short-term trial of the product. The day-to-day users of the product must test the software’s capabilities before making a decision. If the selection team approves during the test phase and others on the selection team are satisfied with the solution, buyers can proceed with the contracting process.
