Persona: Incident Responder (IR)

Persona: Incident Responder (IR)#

Overview#

The Incident Responder (IR) is responsible for managing the response to cybersecurity incidents, from initial detection and triage through containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident analysis. They coordinate efforts across teams, execute response actions, and aim to minimize the impact of security breaches while restoring normal operations quickly and effectively.

Responsibilities#

  • Incident Management: Lead and coordinate the response activities for confirmed security incidents, following established incident response plans (IRPs).

  • Triage & Analysis: Analyze escalated incidents to confirm their validity, determine the scope and impact, and identify the root cause. Perform deeper technical analysis than Tier 1/2 SOC analysts.

  • Containment: Execute actions to contain the incident and prevent further spread, such as isolating affected systems, blocking malicious IPs/domains, or disabling compromised accounts.

  • Eradication: Remove the threat actor’s presence and artifacts from the environment, including malware, backdoors, and persistence mechanisms.

  • Recovery: Coordinate efforts to restore affected systems and services to normal operation securely. Validate system integrity post-recovery.

  • Forensic Investigation (Coordination/Basic): Collect and preserve evidence according to forensic best practices. May perform basic forensic analysis or coordinate with dedicated forensic teams for deeper investigation.

  • Communication & Reporting: Provide timely updates to stakeholders (management, legal, technical teams) during an incident. Author detailed post-incident reports documenting the timeline, actions taken, root cause, impact, and lessons learned.

  • Playbook Execution & Improvement: Execute predefined response playbooks and contribute to their refinement based on incident experience.

Skills#

  • Strong understanding of incident response methodologies (e.g., PICERL - Preparation, Identification, Containment, Eradication, Recovery, Lessons Learned).

  • Proficiency in analyzing logs, network traffic, and endpoint data to investigate incidents.

  • Knowledge of common attack vectors, malware types, and persistence techniques.

  • Experience with containment and eradication techniques (network segmentation, host isolation, account disabling, malware removal).

  • Familiarity with forensic principles and evidence handling.

  • Ability to work under pressure and make critical decisions quickly.

  • Strong coordination, communication, and documentation skills.

  • Experience with SIEM, SOAR, EDR, and potentially forensic tools.

  • Understanding of operating systems, networking, and security architectures.

Commonly Used MCP Tools#

  • secops-soar (Central Coordination & Action):

    • All tools used by SOC Tiers, plus tools for executing response actions (potentially via integrated playbooks or specific action tools if available, e.g., blocking IPs, disabling users, isolating endpoints).

    • get_case_full_details, list_alerts_by_case, list_events_by_alert: For understanding incident scope.

    • post_case_comment: Essential for documenting IR actions and timeline.

    • siemplify_close_case: To formally close resolved incidents.

    • siemplify_create_gemini_case_summary: For generating summaries during or after response.

    • Tools related to specific response actions (e.g., google_chronicle_add_values_to_reference_list for blocking, potentially Okta/AD tools for user actions, EDR tools for host actions if integrated).

  • secops-mcp (Investigation & Validation):

    • search_security_events: To trace attacker activity, confirm containment/eradication.

    • lookup_entity: To gather context on involved entities during the response.

    • get_security_alerts: To monitor for related or subsequent alerts.

  • gti-mcp (Threat Context & Enrichment):

    • Used extensively to understand the nature of the threat being responded to (malware capabilities, actor TTPs) via get_collection_report, get_file_report, etc.

    • get_entities_related_to...: To identify related malicious infrastructure to block or monitor.

  • scc-mcp (Cloud Incident Context):

    • Used if the incident involves cloud resources, to understand posture and potential misconfigurations exploited.

  • (Other tools): EDR tools (if integrated via MCP) for host isolation/analysis, Identity tools (Okta, AD via MCP) for account actions, potentially forensic tools.

Relevant Runbooks#

Incident Responders rely heavily on structured response procedures:

  • case_event_timeline_and_process_analysis.md (Crucial for understanding the incident flow)

  • create_an_investigation_report.md (Foundation for post-incident reporting)

  • investgate_a_case_w_external_tools.md (Core IR workflow)

  • ioc_containment.md

  • compromised_user_account_response.md

  • basic_endpoint_triage_isolation.md

  • phishing_response.md

  • ransomware_response.md

  • (Other specific attack type runbooks if they exist)

  • May leverage findings from hunting runbooks like apt_threat_hunt.md or proactive_threat_hunting_based_on_gti_campain_or_actor.md if an incident arises from a hunt.

  • report_writing.md (For post-incident reports)

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