Ricardo Nardini : 11 November 2025 22:28
By definition, a security incident occurs when a computer system, network, or the data contained within them is compromised, breached, or damaged by malicious or unauthorized activity. These incidents can be caused by a variety of factors, such as malicious actors, malware, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, data theft, physical security breaches, the loss or misplacement of devices containing sensitive information, and so on.
A cybersecurity incident involves access to confidential information of individuals or companies by an unauthorized group or individual. The objectives of a cybersecurity incident can be varied, including unauthorized access, which is when an attacker attempts to gain access to systems or networks to steal sensitive information, such as personal data, trade secrets, or financial information.
Service disruption, as previously mentioned, occurs when an attacker aims to disrupt an organization’s online services or operations through DDoS attacks or other techniques, causing systems to fail. Data modification or corruption is another method, when an attacker attempts to alter, delete, or damage an organization’s critical data, causing financial, reputational, or operational losses.
Extortion, on the other hand, is when attackers (usually profit-driven cybercriminals) demand money or resources from the organization by threatening to disclose sensitive information or blocking access to systems until a ransom is paid.
Industrial espionage, on the other hand, occurs when cyberattacks can be carried out by competitors or foreign entities to gain a competitive advantage through the theft of trade secrets, intellectual property, or confidential information.
The severity of a security incident can vary greatly, from simple unauthorized access attempts to sophisticated targeted attacks. Regardless of the nature of the incident, it is essential to recognize and respond promptly to limit damage, protect sensitive information, and restore the security of affected systems.
It’s logical to have an internal incident management protocol that allows us to define and establish the measures to be taken in the event of a security incident. If the company doesn’t have modern systems for automatically identifying escalations, in the event of a cybersecurity incident, emergency measures must be implemented, such as immediately isolating the system or the compromised network from the internet connection. This helps prevent further infiltration or the spread of the attack to other parts of the system.
The correct course of action would be to partially isolate the affected network. It is essential to conduct a preliminary assessment of the incident to understand its nature and extent of the damage, gather information on suspicious activity, any error messages, or system notifications that could provide clues to the incident. It is also essential to immediately report the incident to the organization’s information security management team, such as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) or the Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT).
Managing incidents of this nature is a delicate, political, stressful, and sometimes difficult decision-making process. A good incident management team will have a good mix of profiles needed to address it, including cybersecurity specialists, technology experts, and, above all, lawyers, as they will also approach the process from an external perspective, which must be pragmatic and untainted by what happened.
It is therefore necessary to understand why the incident was not detected earlier. It could be because the organization does not have a good preventive IT security system. It is possible that system monitoring is non-existent, insufficient, poorly maintained, inadequate, there is no audit process, or the personnel is simply not well-qualified.
Once the incident has been analyzed and its cause determined, it is important to implement the necessary controls and measures to resolve it and implement actions to close the leak and prevent further leaks. Possible communication plans are established at this stage. both internally and with the relevant customers and the corresponding authorities.
Preserving all relevant evidence, even the most trivial, is essential, including system logs, log files, screenshots, and other relevant data. These items could be useful for subsequent forensic analysis and to identify the cause of the incident.
As mentioned above, if the incident is serious or involves sensitive personal data, it may be necessary to immediately involve the relevant authorities, such as law enforcement or regulatory agencies. At the same time, efforts will be made to contain the incident to prevent further damage.
This may involve temporarily disabling affected systems, revoking compromised credentials, or taking other measures to block unauthorized access.
It’s important to have a roadmap or procedure that guides us through all the steps that need to be taken during and after the incident. If this doesn’t exist or isn’t previously drawn up and planned, we’ll waste time and the consequences will be worse and more protracted.
If the organization has previously implemented a good access control policy, with the least privilege possible and zero trust, we will have already mitigated a significant amount. Furthermore, if we had a network intrusion detection procedure with the corresponding systems, we could catch the intruder before he could access our entire network.
Furthermore, with a segmented network architecture, It will be more difficult to access and perhaps easier to detect when attempting to switch between networks. Having assets clearly identified and classified can also help us understand the location of each device within the wired network segment, so we can determine which assets may have been compromised.
If there were no real inventory or classification of assets, it would be difficult not only to know the extent of the attack, but also to respond to the relevant authorities.
When a company suffers a cybersecurity attack, one of the most crucial decisions it must make is whether or not to disclose the incident to its customers and stakeholders. In the past, many companies may have feared the negative consequences of such disclosure, fearing it could damage their reputation and customer trust. However, in recent years, there has been a clear evolution in the way organizations address these situations.
Today, many companies realize that timely and transparent communication is crucial to maintaining customer trust and demonstrating a commitment to data security. Delaying the reporting of a security incident often leads to even more serious consequences, such as loss of trust, potential legal action, and irreparable reputational damage.
When communicating with data subjects, it’s important to provide clear and concise information about the incident, avoiding jargon that could confuse uninitiated individuals. Data subjects should be informed of the type of breach that occurred, what data may have been compromised, and what actions the company is taking to respond to the incident.
The communication should also include the preventative measures the company is taking to strengthen security and prevent future breaches. This may include implementing new security policies, adopting advanced technologies, increasing employee cybersecurity training, and possibly engaging external experts for security audits.
It’s important to emphasize that communication shouldn’t be limited to directly affected customers, but should extend to all relevant stakeholders, such as business partners, suppliers, and employees. This demonstrates a comprehensive commitment to transparency and accountability.
Reporting a security incident can be an opportunity for a company to demonstrate its crisis management capabilities and dedication to customer data security. An effective and transparent response can help maintain customer trust and strengthen the company’s long-term reputation.
Don’t be afraid to let your customers know you’re responding to a cyber attack, because it will become known somehow. Transparency and timely communication are the cornerstones of maintaining trust and building strong customer relationships.
The next phase of operations triggers recovery. After containing the incident, the affected systems or networks are restored. This may include reinstalling systems from clean backups or rebuilding compromised configurations.
It’s important to design a backup recovery system with guarantees and security, since cybercriminals, when they infiltrate an organization with the goal of causing business paralysis or a ransomware attack, aim to render backup copies useless. Therefore, it’s necessary to design a backup plan based on the severity of the damage.
On the other hand, copying low-risk data, which should be done less frequently, does not have the same tenor as retaining high-risk data. Therefore, ensure that copies are performed correctly and accordingly. It’s important to have a routine to verify that the copies are valid and can be used for restores. Nested restore is a delicate and high-stress process, as it’s slow and sometimes restores fail.
For this reason, it’s necessary to establish a recovery procedure that specifies the order and method for restoring the copies. This procedure, like the previous ones, must be improved periodically. A prepared infrastructure will be needed to restore the systems, and needless to say, it’s not advisable to use compromised infrastructure to restore a copy from a system for several reasons. For example, the compromised system will be analyzed by the forensic team to determine the extent and depth of the breach, as well as the attack vector.
In turn, restoring a copy on a compromised system does not offer sufficient guarantees, and it is possible that there are dormant programs or open ports that can be reused by the attacker.
Meanwhile, an in-depth analysis of the incident is necessary to understand the causes, objectives, and methods of the attack. This will help take preventative measures to avoid future incidents of this nature. It’s important to have the tools necessary to analyze how and when the incident occurred, what information may have been stolen, where it was made public, and so on.
Once you have a detailed report from this analysis, you can proceed with security policy updates, such as reviewing the organization’s IT security policies and procedures to ensure they are adequate to prevent future issues, and then making any necessary changes to strengthen the overall security of the system.
Lastly, and most importantly, follow-up of the implemented measures is organized to monitor and implement continuous improvements, ensuring that the protection and prevention measures implemented are adequate to avoid a similar security incident.
It is impossible to guarantee complete immunity to cyber attacks, so it is important to have immediate security measures in place that minimize the attacks and risks to which an organization is exposed and, above all, to be aware of and act urgently once the company has been attacked or is susceptible to a cyber security incident.
