What type of capabilities should be automated for effective incident response?

Automating containment capabilities in incident response is critical for minimizing the impact of security incidents and accelerating recovery time. Containment refers to the actions taken to limit the spread of an incident, ensuring that threats do not propagate further into a system or network. By automating these capabilities, organizations can respond more quickly and efficiently to incidents, implement predefined actions without the need for human intervention, and reduce the likelihood of errors that can occur during manual processes.

Automation also allows for a consistent and repeatable response to incidents, which is essential in high-pressure situations where rapid decision-making is necessary. These capabilities might include automatically isolating affected systems, blocking malicious traffic, or applying security patches. In contrast, while communication strategies, long-term monitoring, and cost-cutting measures contribute to overall incident management and organizational security posture, they do not play as direct a role in the immediate response and management of an active security incident.