🚨 Incident Response

Detect, Contain, Eradicate, Recover—With Evidence

Incident Response (IR) is how you detect, triage, contain, eradicate, and recover from security events—quickly and with audit-grade evidence.
SolveForce implements IR as a system: playbooks in SOAR, signal from SIEM, containment via EDR/NDR/SD-WAN/Identity, and recovery powered by immutable backups and DRaaS—all measured by RPO/RTO and MTTx SLOs.

Connected stack:
📊 SIEM / SOAR → /siem-soar • 🛡️ EDR/MDR/XDR → /mdr-xdr • 🖧 NDR → /ndr
🔑 IAM / SSO / MFA → /iam • 🧰 PAM → /pam • 🔐 DLP → /dlp
💾 Cloud Backup → /cloud-backup • 🔒 Backup Immutability → /backup-immutability • ☁️ DRaaS → /draas

🎯 Outcomes (Why SolveForce IR)

  • MTTD/MTTR down — detect and contain in minutes, not hours.
  • Least-blast-radius — identity-, device-, and network-level containment with rollback.
  • Clean recovery — restore from immutable backups and orchestrated DR.
  • Complete evidence — timelines, artifacts, approvals; exportable to auditors.
  • Operational calm — rehearsed playbooks, clear comms, and decision trees.

🧭 Scope (What we handle)

  • Endpoints/Servers/VDI — malware, ransomware, LOLBins, persistence, lateral movement. → /mdr-xdr
  • Network/East-West — C2 beacons, DNS tunneling, exfil, rogue services. → /ndr
  • Identity/Access — account takeover (ATO), token/session theft, privilege abuse. → /iam • /pam
  • Cloud/SaaS — misconfig, API abuse, key leaks, BEC (Business Email Compromise).
  • Apps/Web/API — OWASP Top-10, bot/card testing, L7 DDoS. → /waf • /ddos

🧱 IR Framework (Spelled out)

1) Prepare — playbooks, roles, SLAs, evidence stores, immutable backups, DR runbooks.
2) Detect — high-fidelity rules in SIEM, signals from EDR/NDR/Cloud/Email. → /siem-soar
3) Triage — severity, scope, crown-jewel impact, decision to contain.
4) Contain — EDR isolate, NAC quarantine, SD-WAN path pin/blackhole, ZTNA revoke, WAF/Flowspec blocks. → /nac • /sd-wan • /ztna
5) Eradicate — kill processes, remove persistence, rotate secrets/keys, patch. → /secrets-management • /key-management
6) Recover — restore from immutable backups, validate clean-point, fail back via DRaaS. → /cloud-backup • /backup-immutability • /draas
7) Lessons Learned — RCA, control gaps, policy/module updates, executive report.

Automation: SOAR orchestrates actions with approvals, blast-radius caps, and auto-rollback. → /siem-soar

🚨 Priority Playbooks (ATT&CK-aligned, audit-ready)

1) Ransomware Behavior (Sev-1)

  • Detect: rapid encrypt/rename + shadow-copy tamper + suspicious parent tree.
  • Contain: EDR isolate host → NAC quarantine VLAN → SD-WAN pin → revoke sessions.
  • Eradicate: kill encryptor, remove persistence, rotate secrets/keys.
  • Recover: identify clean point → restore from immutable backups → app probes.
    → /mdr-xdr • /nac • /backup-immutability • /draas

2) Account Takeover / BEC

  • Detect: impossible travel + inbox rules + anomalous API calls / OAuth grants.
  • Contain: revoke tokens → require MFA → lock/rotate privileged accounts (PAM).
  • Eradicate: disable rogue apps/keys, reset secrets, DLP checks.
  • Recover: restore mailbox rules, audit delegate access, notify finance/legal.
    → /iam • /pam • /dlp

3) Data Exfiltration

  • Detect: new ASN/bucket egress spikes + DLP hits + odd time/geo.
  • Contain: block domain/IP (WAF/Firewall) → SD-WAN sinkhole → ZTNA tighten.
  • Eradicate: kill data movers, rotate creds, fix policies.
  • Recover: verify data scope, notify per regulation, legal hold.
    → /waf • /sd-wan • /dlp

4) Cloud Key/Token Leak

  • Detect: cloud telemetry (CloudTrail/Activity) anomalous API usage.
  • Contain: revoke keys; SCP lockdown; quarantine roles/projects.
  • Eradicate: rotate CMK/keys, re-deploy secrets, patch IaC.
  • Recover: validate drift; re-enable least-privilege.
    → /key-management • /encryption • /infrastructure-as-code

5) L7 DDoS / Bot Surge

  • Detect: edge metrics, surge patterns, bot heuristics.
  • Contain: rate-limit/challenge at WAF → Anycast withdraw/sinkhole if needed.
  • Recover: re-enable routes; publish RCA.
    → /waf • /ddos • /bgp-management

📐 SLO Guardrails (Commit to numbers)

SLO / KPITarget (Recommended)
MTTD (Sev-1)≤ 5–10 min (SIEM correlation)
Triage start (Sev-1)≤ 10 min from alert
Containment (Sev-1)≤ 15–30 min (EDR/NAC/SD-WAN/Cloud)
Forensic acquisition start≤ 60 min (where applicable)
Clean-point identification (ransomware)≤ 2–4 h with job logs/checksums
RTO (Tier-1 apps)≤ 5–60 min via DRaaS runbooks
Evidence completeness (Sev-1/2 cases)= 100% (timeline, artifacts, approvals)
Executive comms published≤ 24 h initial; updates as agreed

SLO breaches trigger SOAR escalations and management notifications. → /siem-soar

🔒 Zero-Trust Containment (Practical controls)

  • Endpoints: EDR isolate, kill process, quarantine file, rollback (where supported). → /mdr-xdr
  • Network: NAC quarantine, SD-WAN pin/blackhole, WAF/Flowspec blocks. → /nac • /sd-wan • /waf
  • Identity: revoke sessions, step-up MFA, lock/rotate privileged access (PAM). → /iam • /pam
  • Data: DLP quarantine, watermark/read-only, tokenization routes. → /dlp
  • Keys/Secrets: disable/rotate keys, re-issue short-lived creds from vault. → /key-management • /secrets-management

📊 Evidence & Communications

  • Case timelines — alert → triage → actions → recovery; hash all artifacts.
  • Artifacts — PCAPs, memory/drive images (where applicable), logs, configs, screenshots.
  • Approvals — who authorized isolate/lock/rotate/restore; change IDs.
  • Reports — executive summary, scope, dwell time, impact, controls added, next steps.
  • Stakeholders — execs, legal, HR, PR, regulators/customers (as required).
    All exported to SIEM with WORM options; SOAR holds action history. → /siem-soar

🧰 Readiness Pack (what we put in place)

  • Playbook library — ransomware, ATO/BEC, exfil, cloud key leak, DDoS, insider, supply chain.
  • Runbooks — DR cutover, mailbox purge, token revoke, RTBH/Flowspec, cache purge, Anycast withdraw.
  • Access matrix — who can isolate hosts, lock users, rotate keys, fail over, talk to press.
  • Clean-point catalog — pre-validated restore sets for crown-jewel apps.
  • Drills — tabletop & live; lessons learned feed policy & IaC. → /infrastructure-as-code

📜 Compliance Mapping (Examples)

  • PCI DSS — incident evidence, carding/WAF logs, key rotation, access approvals.
  • HIPAA — audit controls, minimum necessary, breach notifications.
  • ISO 27001 — A.16 incident mgmt, A.12 ops, A.9 access; change evidence.
  • NIST 800-53/171 — IR/SI/AU/AC families; chain-of-custody, containment, recovery.
  • CMMC — IR maturity; exportable packs (timeline, artifacts, approvals).

🛠️ Implementation Blueprint (No-Surprise Rollout)

1) Assess — crown jewels, threat model, RPO/RTO tiers, comms plan.
2) Instrument — SIEM rules, EDR/NDR coverage, cloud/email integrations.
3) Automate — SOAR playbooks with approvals & rollback; ticket/ITSM linkage.
4) Harden — ZTNA/SASE for users, NAC at edges, WAF/Bot at boundary, secrets/keys posture.
5) Protect — immutable backups, air-gap accounts, DR architecture.
6) Drill — ransomware, ATO/BEC, exfil, region outage; capture artifacts.
7) Operate — SLO dashboards, weekly tuning, monthly reports; refresh clean-point catalog.

✅ Pre-Engagement Checklist

  • 👑 Crown-jewel apps/data, owners, RPO/RTO.
  • 📡 Signal coverage (EDR/NDR/Cloud/Email), rule gaps, false-positive budget.
  • ⚙️ SOAR approvals matrix (who can isolate/lock/rotate/restore).
  • 🔐 Keys/Secrets plan (CMK/HSM, vault, rotation), break-glass identities (PAM).
  • 🧰 WAF/Bot & DDoS posture; ZTNA/SASE & NAC policies.
  • 💾 Backup immutability & DR runbooks; clean-point criteria.
  • 📢 Comms tree (exec/legal/HR/PR/regulatory/customers).
  • 📊 SLO dashboards; SIEM exports; evidence format & retention.

🔄 Where Incident Response Fits (Recursive View)

1) Grammar — signals and actions traverse Connectivity & Networks & Data Centers.
2) Syntax — orchestration & recovery live in Cloud with on-ramps.
3) Semantics — Cybersecurity preserves truth; IR proves it.
4) Pragmatics — SolveForce AI enriches, deduplicates, predicts, and launches safe automation.
5) Foundation — consistent terms via Primacy of Language.
6) Map — indexed in the SolveForce Codex & Knowledge Hub.

📞 Launch Incident Response That’s Fast, Safe & Auditable

Related pages:
SIEM / SOAR • EDR / MDR / XDR • NDR • DLP • IAM / SSO / MFA • PAM • Cloud Backup • Backup Immutability • DRaaS • WAF / Bot Management • DDoS Protection • SD-WAN • NAC • Cybersecurity • Knowledge Hub