The Pivotal Role of Live Incident Response Rehearsal in Cyber Resilience

The Pivotal Role of Live Incident Response Rehearsal in Cyber Resilience

The paradigm of complete incident prevention is not realistic in today’s threat landscape. This approach, rooted in the early days of computer security, says that if your security teams just have the right tools and techniques, it’s possible to shield your systems and data from every conceivable threat. However, the rapid expansion of digital infrastructures coupled with the sophistication of modern cyber threats renders a prevention-only approach increasingly unrealistic. 

A much more realistic and effective approach involves a balance of prevention, detection, and response. This suggests a shift towards resilience-based strategies, where the emphasis is not only on preventing incidents but also on preparing to manage them effectively when they inevitably happen, ideally through proper rehearsals. Here’s why live incident response rehearsal is so pivotal for strengthening cyber resilience. 

Quality of Response Matters More Than Prevention

Leading security researchers have started to speak out about the importance of robust recovery and rehearsal from security incidents. A recent article in The Register highlighted that “zero tolerance of failure is unrealistic.” What matters most – what’s most essential in the modern threat landscape is “recovering fast from inevitable attacks.”

According to the 2024 Gartner® research from “Predicts 2024: Augmented Cybersecurity Leadership Is Needed to Navigate Turbulent Times” backs up this paradigm shift towards rehearsal by advising that companies should, “In the pre-incident phase, rehearse incident response plans to create crisis response habits and train managers to identify stress symptoms.” Increased personal resilience through incident rehearsal translates into increased organizational resilience against cyber attacks.  

This mindset also aligns with one of the pillars of zero-trust cybersecurity – the assumed breach principle, which operates under the assumption that attackers may already be inside the network or will inevitably find a way in. The main message is that the quality of your response to a cybersecurity incident arguably matters more than prevention. The true measure of cybersecurity strength lies not in your company’s ability to avoid all incidents but in its capacity to respond effectively and minimize disruption. 

Theoretical vs. Practical Preparation

But where does true quality response come from? Some approaches advocate for the value of theoretical incident prep, such as tabletop discussions. While tabletop exercises are valuable for understanding the general aspects of crisis management and ensuring that all team members are aware of procedures and their roles, they don’t provide the hands-on experience and muscle memory needed. 

Live simulation rehearsals on cyber ranges thrust teams into realistic, controlled environments where they can engage with and respond to real-world cyber threats. Similar to how emergency drills prepare professionals like pilots to act swiftly and effectively in a crisis, live-fire cyber simulations train incident response personnel to react efficiently to security breaches. This practical, team-based experience (repeated over time) is invaluable because it ensures that when faced with a real incident, the response is almost instinctual. Strong muscle memory in cyber incidents reduces decision-making time and mitigates the worst outcomes from attacks.

Psychological Benefits

When your incident response team regularly engages in live simulation exercises, they develop not only technical skills but also critical psychological resilience that underpins successful crisis management. One of the core psychological benefits of hands-on training is panic reduction. In high-pressure scenarios, unfamiliarity is a major contributor to stress and panic. 

When people encounter a situation that they have never faced before, the initial response can often be fear, which in turn can lead to paralysis or hasty, poorly thought-out decisions. By regularly conducting live simulations, your team becomes familiar with various types of cyber threats and breaches and sensitized to these events' stress. 

High stress levels can impair logical thinking and response times. Simulation platforms enable not only the replication of various cyber threat scenarios but they also mimic the high-pressure environment that accompanies real cyber incidents. Managers can observe how their team members react under stress, learn to identify signs of stress in their team members, and take actions like redistributing workload or providing direct support. 

Improvement Through Metrics

If you accept the point that incident rehearsal is critical for strengthening cyber resilience, it’s worth thinking about the value of cyber ranges in improving response through metrics. Live-fire simulations on cyber ranges provide tangible data that you can use to measure and evaluate the performance of security teams objectively. Metrics like response time, threat identification accuracy, and problem resolution rates are otherwise only available during real cyber incidents; theoretical exercises don’t give tangible data. 

In addition to technical proficiencies, metrics should include soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, and compliance.

These metrics provide a clear picture of where the team stands in terms of incident readiness and capability. The data collected from live drills also provides higher-level insights that can guide strategic decisions relating to your cybersecurity policies and protocols. By analyzing the outcomes of these drills, you can identify trends and patterns that may indicate systemic vulnerabilities or strengths in incident response plans. This allows you to dynamically adjust incident response plans and cybersecurity strategies based on empirical evidence rather than theoretical models or outdated assumptions.

Live-Fire Cyber Ranges with Cloud Range

If there’s one clear message emanating from the latest discussions about cyber incidents and their inevitability, it’s that practical rehearsals are a necessity for effective incident response. Experiential learning is essential as it builds both confidence and competence, which ensures that when a real incident occurs, the response is swift, coordinated, and effective. Ultimately, the aim is to minimize the impact of breaches when they do happen, rather than laboring under the outdated assumption that 100 percent prevention is feasible. 

Cloud Range provides live-fire, team-based simulation exercises to improve your incident response through our cyber range-as-a-service platform. You can customize the environment to reflect the same tools you use every day and choose from a huge catalog of out-of-the-box attack simulations. You can even emulate your exact network infrastructure – including IT, OT and cloud – for the most realistic incident rehearsal possible. 

See a demo here. 

Predicts 2024: Augmented Cybersecurity Leadership Is Needed to Navigate Turbulent Times, Deepti Gopal, William Candrick, Andrew Walls, Lisa Neubauer, Alissa Lugo, Christopher Mixter, William Dupre, Christine Lee, Richard Addiscott, Wayne Hankins, 9 January, 2024. Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

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