In order to ensure that their networks are safe, businesses need to think of stages of the cybersecurity lifecycle as more than just security software and antivirus protection. While these tools are important, having a comprehensive strategy to protect your data is equally crucial. If you’re unsure about the five stages of the cybersecurity lifecycle and how you can use them to protect your company from cyber attacks, this article will explain everything you need to know about each stage in detail and what they can do for your business.
What are the 5 stages of the cybersecurity lifecycle?
- Logging
- Analysis
- Forensics
- Attack Detection
- Remediation
1) Logging
Logging is an important part of monitoring any system or network, and it’s especially vital in security. At its core, logging is simply recording activities so that they can be reviewed later. Logs are frequently associated with troubleshooting, as they provide insights into what’s happening when something goes wrong. However, logs aren’t just used to diagnose problems—they’re also useful for routine maintenance (like checking disk space) and general performance tuning (such as determining where a bottleneck might exist). When trying to develop a security program, logging should be a foundational component—not an afterthought.
Next, you need to collect, store and organize your logs. Whether they’re generated by network-based security tools or locally installed programs, you can’t do much with them unless they’re accessible. You’ll probably want to analyze them at some point—and make sure they don’t fill up your hard drive—so it’s important to manage their size. Log rotation is a useful technique for dealing with log files when they grow too large; when a log file reaches a certain size, it will be split into multiple files (of varying sizes) that can then be deleted after 90 days. If you don’t take advantage of log rotation, individual logs may become unmanageable and even impossible to open due to their sheer size.
2) Analysis
As more enterprises realize they’re vulnerable to security breaches, they’re investing in professionals whose primary responsibility is to ensure a company’s data and systems stay safe. Although there isn’t a consistent definition for what constitutes a cybersecurity professional, experts agree that it involves dealing with three main areas: identifying vulnerabilities; detecting attacks, and implementing prevention mechanisms. The first stage of a cybersecurity professional’s job is analysis. During these initial steps, employees identify possible threats based on past breaches, as well as new hacking methods that could affect their organization.
The next step in a cybersecurity professional’s job is detection. These experts work to ensure that companies have up-to-date security systems, as well as identify abnormal traffic in their networks and other areas. They may use different techniques to do so, such as auditing computer networks for possible vulnerabilities or analyzing network traffic for malicious activity. If any threat is detected, a cybersecurity expert can then work with IT staff to put protective measures into place and use an incident response plan if necessary.
3) Forensics
Recovering data from your computer and tracking down intruders can be a time-consuming, intricate process. It’s no surprise that forensics is often one of the last steps in cyber defense; you must have successfully mitigated any damage before getting to forensics. But if you’re going to get to forensics, do it right by following these five steps for resolving digital forensic threats:
- Notification
- Identification
- Analysis
- Response
- Recovery
While each stage has its own unique set of sub-steps and procedures, they all share an overarching goal: restoring your network to safety. If security breaches aren’t handled quickly enough, they can cause massive data loss or even full system shutdowns.
4) Attack Detection
Attack detection is an ongoing process, where your network security operations personnel monitor their networks for any attacks or breaches. This helps ensure that you can spot a breach early, minimize its impact and thus increase its chances of being contained before it spreads across your entire system. It’s not just about preventing a cyberattack; it’s also about being able to respond quickly when one does happen. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure after all!
Once an attack is underway, your job becomes a bit harder as you need to identify that there’s an active attack. This requires significant vigilance, but it can be accomplished with monitoring software. There are a number of ways to monitor for potential cyberattacks; one way is by doing regular scans and updates on devices in your network. The more time passes between installing security updates and doing routine scans, however, the greater chances there are for exploits to occur in your system. This happens especially if you have poorly trained employees! More sophisticated monitoring software can identify when attacks occur or when intruders attempt to access and file changes so that they can be monitored constantly by dedicated security personnel.
5) Remediation
Stage 2 is remediation, where you fix existing vulnerabilities and system bugs. Remediation efforts should also be automated in order to speed up recovery time and minimize risks. Fixing bugs and security holes after an attack can be difficult, as it means identifying which systems have been affected and manually patching vulnerabilities. The longer these issues exist, the more vulnerable a network becomes—but with an automated tool, you can repair them much faster.
Since remediation efforts can introduce new security risks, these updates should be tested before being implemented on a live network. If a test reveals that there’s another issue that’s even more pressing than those being fixed, it may be worth delaying remediation to fix more pressing vulnerabilities. While automated tools can help with identifying vulnerabilities and remediating issues, testing requires manual human effort to ensure they work as intended. Test team members should also work remotely in order to minimize the impact of any potential security breaches.
