Run simulations

Running simulations, often called “game days,” is a key practice for continually assessing and improving your incident response capabilities. As organizations grow and the threat landscape evolves, simulations help ensure that your incident response processes, tools, and personnel remain effective against current threats. Game days simulate real-world security incidents, allowing your organization to practice responding to threats, identify areas for improvement, and evaluate your readiness to handle actual incidents.

1. Plan and design realistic scenarios: Develop simulation scenarios that reflect realistic security events your organization may face. Scenarios should mimic the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of potential threat actors, such as phishing attacks, data breaches, ransomware, insider threats, or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Each scenario should be designed to test specific aspects of your incident response plan, such as detection, containment, communication, or recovery.
2. Define simulation objectives: Establish clear objectives for each simulation, such as testing the effectiveness of specific incident response playbooks, evaluating the readiness of the incident response team, or identifying gaps in existing processes. Defining objectives helps ensure that the simulation provides actionable insights and is aligned with your organization’s incident response goals.
3. Involve key personnel across departments: Engage key personnel from various departments in the simulations, including IT, Security, Legal, Communications, and Business Operations. Incident response requires cross-functional collaboration, and simulations help ensure that all teams understand their roles and responsibilities during an actual incident. Assign roles based on your incident response plan to ensure everyone practices the responsibilities they would have in a real incident.
4. Practice using incident response tools: Use game days to practice using the tools and processes that your team would use during a real incident. This includes tools such as AWS Security Hub, Amazon GuardDuty, AWS Systems Manager Incident Manager, and AWS CloudTrail. Practicing with these tools helps ensure that your team is familiar with the workflows, understands the capabilities, and can quickly and effectively use the tools to investigate and mitigate incidents.
5. Simulate communication procedures: Include communication aspects in the simulation, such as notifying stakeholders, issuing public statements, and coordinating with regulatory bodies. Simulations should involve the Communications Coordinator and practice using pre-prepared communication templates. Ensuring effective communication during a simulation helps minimize confusion, reduce panic, and provide stakeholders with timely information.
6. Identify gaps and areas for improvement: After completing the simulation, conduct a debriefing session to review the incident response performance. Analyze what went well, what challenges were encountered, and where there were delays or miscommunications. Identify gaps in the incident response plan, playbooks, access permissions, or skills, and develop action items to address those gaps.
7. Update incident response plans and playbooks: Based on the findings from the simulation, update your incident response plan, playbooks, and procedures. Incorporate lessons learned to improve response times, streamline communication, and address any weaknesses in your processes. Simulations are only effective if the lessons learned are used to make meaningful improvements to your incident response readiness.
8. Conduct regular simulations: Perform game days on a regular basis to ensure that your incident response capabilities remain current and effective. Quarterly or bi-annual simulations are often recommended, but frequency should be based on the complexity of your environment and the evolving threat landscape. Regularly scheduled simulations help keep your team sharp and your incident response capabilities aligned with current threats.

Supporting Questions:

• How do you ensure that your incident response capabilities remain effective as the threat landscape evolves?
• What types of scenarios are used during simulations to mimic real-world security events?
• How do you incorporate the findings from simulations to improve your incident response processes?

Roles and Responsibilities:

Incident Commander:

• Responsibilities:
  • Lead the simulation, guide participants through each stage of the incident response, and coordinate the activities of all team members.
  • Facilitate the post-simulation debrief to review performance and identify areas for improvement.

Security Analyst:

• Responsibilities:
  • Execute the technical response steps during the simulation, including containment, forensics, and recovery.
  • Identify gaps in the response process or tools that may hinder effective response during a real incident.

Communications Coordinator:

• Responsibilities:
  • Practice issuing communications during the simulation, including internal notifications, customer communications, and coordination with regulatory bodies.
  • Ensure communication templates are effective and aligned with the organization’s messaging during security events.

Artefacts:

• Game Day Scenario Documentation: Detailed scenarios used during simulations, outlining the threat actor’s tactics, techniques, and procedures to mimic real-world events.
• Simulation Reports: Reports from game days that document the effectiveness of the response, lessons learned, and areas for improvement in incident response capabilities.
• Updated Incident Response Plan and Playbooks: Revised incident response documentation that incorporates lessons learned from simulations to enhance readiness.

Relevant AWS Services:

AWS Security and Response Tools:

• AWS Security Hub: Aggregates security findings from across AWS services, providing a centralized view for incident response and helping teams practice using real-world data during simulations.
• Amazon GuardDuty: Detects anomalous and unauthorized activity, providing threat detection that can be simulated during game days to test incident response actions.
• AWS Systems Manager Incident Manager: Coordinates the response process, helping teams track incident timelines and manage the workflow during simulations.
• AWS CloudTrail: Logs API activity across your AWS environment, enabling teams to practice gathering and analyzing logs during simulations to trace the sequence of events.

Monitoring and Logging Tools:

• Amazon CloudWatch: Monitors metrics and generates alerts for unusual activities, allowing incident response teams to test detection and response workflows during game days.
• AWS Config: Tracks configuration changes and helps assess potential misconfigurations that may have contributed to the simulated incident, providing insights for future prevention.

Coordination and Communication Tools:

• AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): Ensures the right team members have the correct permissions during simulations, ensuring that responders can practice accessing the necessary resources.
• AWS Organizations: Manages cross-account access for incident response teams during simulations, allowing teams to practice centralized response across multiple AWS accounts.
• Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service): Sends notifications to internal and external stakeholders during simulations, testing the efficiency and clarity of communication protocols.