☁️ Cloud-Native Incident Response Plan

 PHASE 1

Preparation

“Before the storm, we train the team, harden the terrain, and sharpen our visibility.”

✅ Objectives:

• Build a response-ready culture and toolkit.

• Ensure logging, access control, and detection are pre-configured.

• Define clear roles, responsibilities, and communication paths.
  
  

🔧 Actions:

• Cloud Logging & Visibility:

  • Enable Microsoft Defender for Cloud or AWS GuardDuty

  • Centralize logs in Sentinel, Splunk, or CloudTrail (GCP: Cloud Logging)
    
    

• Baseline Configs:

  • Use CIS Benchmarks for cloud services

  • Harden IAM (MFA, least privilege, role segregation)
    
    

• IR Playbooks:
  
  

  • Document scenarios (e.g., credential leak, ransomware in cloud storage)

  • Automate early response using SOAR (e.g., Sentinel Playbooks)
    
    

• Team Readiness:

  • Assign IR roles using RACI matrix

  • Conduct regular tabletop and red team exercises
    
    

PHASE 2

Detection & Analysis

“Detection is awareness; analysis is wisdom. The faster you know, the faster you control.”

✅ Objectives:

• Identify the threat early with context.

• Triage alerts to separate noise from signal.

• Analyze scope and impact quickly.
  
  

🔧 Actions:

• Detection Sources:

  • SIEM: Sentinel (Azure), Chronicle (GCP), Security Hub (AWS)

  • EDR/XDR: Defender XDR, CrowdStrike, Elastic
    
    

• Threat Intel Integration:

  • Enrich alerts with MITRE ATT&CK mapping

  • Use Threat Intelligence Feeds (MISP, STIX/TAXII)
    
    

• Automated Triage:

  • SOAR triage workflows (auto-close known-good, escalate anomalies)
    
    

• Investigative Tools:

  • Analyze activity logs, token misuse, IAM changes

  • Use Jupyter notebooks in Sentinel or GCP’s BigQuery for analysis
    
    

• Response Time Metric:

  • Define and monitor your MTTD (Mean Time to Detect)
    
    

PHASE 3

Containment

“Control the blast radius. Stop the spread while preserving evidence.”

✅ Objectives:

• Stop attacker access.

• Limit further impact.

• Preserve forensics data for root cause and legal evidence.
  
  

🔧 Actions:

• Short-Term Containment:

  • Disable affected API keys, tokens, IAM roles

  • Quarantine compromised workloads or containers
    
    

• Isolation Mechanisms:

  • Use NSGs (Azure), Security Groups (AWS), or VPC Firewall Rules (GCP)

  • Redirect traffic via WAFs or Cloud Armor

• Snapshot for Forensics:

  • Clone VMs or container volumes

  • Export logs and memory dumps to secure vaults (cold storage)

PHASE 4

Eradication

“Remove the infection. Close every door the attacker used.”

✅ Objectives:

• Fully eliminate attacker presence.

• Identify and close all exploited vulnerabilities.

• Reset credentials, rotate keys, patch systems.
  
  

🔧 Actions:

• Root Cause Fixes:

  • Patch vulnerable cloud apps / services

  • Revoke and rotate credentials (OAuth, tokens, keys)
    
    

• Clean Infrastructure:

  • Rebuild VMs or containers from trusted images

  • Validate no persistence mechanisms (cron jobs, startup scripts)
    
    

• Revalidate Access Control:

  • Audit IAM for over-provisioned roles

  • Enforce conditional access and logging going forward
    
    

PHASE 5

Recovery

“Bring systems back in a clean, trusted, and monitored state.”

✅ Objectives:

• Restore critical services with confidence.

• Monitor closely for reinfection or hidden persistence.

• Ensure all stakeholders are informed of recovery status.
  
  

🔧 Actions:

• Cloud Restoration:

  • Redeploy from clean backups / IaC (Terraform, Bicep, CloudFormation)

  • Verify image integrity before use
    
    

• Staged Recovery:

  • Restore in controlled segments (starting with least critical)

  • Monitor each segment’s behavior
    
    

• Enhanced Monitoring:

  • Apply extra detection rules and alert thresholds temporarily

  • Enable audit logs on sensitive services
    
    

• Business Continuity Comms:

  • Notify stakeholders (internal, external, regulatory if required)

  • Coordinate with PR/legal for breach notification (e.g., GDPR)
    
    

PHASE 6

Lessons Learned

“The incident is over. But the learning begins.”

✅ Objectives:

• Extract strategic insights.

• Improve resilience.

• Update documentation and training.
  
  

🔧 Actions:

• Conduct After-Action Review (AAR):

  • Include security, cloud, DevOps, legal, PR

  • Document timeline, impact, decisions made
    
    

• Metrics & Debrief:

  • Measure MTTR, containment time, escalation quality

  • Identify false positives and missed alerts
    
    

• Update Playbooks & Tools:

  • Automate newly manual steps (SOAR updates)

  • Add new detection rules, tune alert logic
    
    

• Train Your Team:

  • Share redacted IR summaries internally

  • Use simulations to reinforce weak points
    
    

• Report to Leadership:

  • Focus on ROI, risk reduction, and proposed improvements