When a cyber-security incident strikes, every second counts. Quick and seamless communication between incident responders is critical for minimizing damage and restoring systems as rapidly as possible. This is where ephemeral messaging comes in. Ephemeral messaging refers to communication where messages automatically disappear after a set time. While it’s often associated with consumer apps like Snapchat, businesses increasingly adopt ephemeral messaging for secure communication, especially during incident response.
- Securing sensitive communications
Responders often need to share susceptible details like system vulnerabilities, customer PII, or confidential business data during an incident. The last thing you want is for this info to fall into the wrong hands. Ephemeral messaging provides an extra layer of security for these communications. With messages auto-deleting, you significantly reduce the risk of sensitive details leaking or being exposed if a device is lost or compromised. End-to-end encryption, a standard feature on most ephemeral platforms, further protects data in transit.
- Maintaining message discipline
In the heat of an incident, it’s easy for responders to get caught up in side conversations or share information not relevant to the task at hand. Ephemeral messaging helps maintain focus and message discipline. The disappearing nature of messages encourages team members to keep communications concise and on-topic. There’s less temptation to go off on tangents when you know the record won’t be permanent. This helps filter out noise and keeps everyone zeroed in on critical tasks.
- Integrating with incident response workflows
To be truly effective, ephemeral messaging must integrate smoothly with your existing incident response workflows and tools. Many leading ephemeral messaging platforms offer robust APIs and pre-built integrations that make this easy.
For example, you might configure your SIEM to automatically post alerts to a dedicated incident response channel on your ephemeral platform. Analysts could collaborate on those alerts in real-time, sharing additional context via threaded replies. You might also build a chatbot integration that lets responders query internal knowledge bases or run security commands directly from the messaging UI.
- Balancing ephemerality and auditability
While ephemeral messaging has clear benefits for incident response, the auto-deletion of messages can sometimes conflict with needs around logging and auditability. Specific industry regulations or company policies may require keeping records of incident-related communications Source.
The good news is that most enterprise-grade ephemeral messaging platforms provide options to strike a balance here. For instance, you might set more lenient deletion policies for incident-related channels or configure automated archiving of certain message types before deletion. The key is working with your security, compliance, and legal teams to define policies that enable effective response while meeting applicable requirements.
- Training and adoption
Ephemeral messaging is only valuable if incident responders use it. Driving adoption requires providing the right tools and training employees on their use. Integrate them into employee on boarding and incident response training, with clear use case examples.
Ephemeral notes are a form of online notes that automatically erase after a set time, similar to brief messages. During an incident, designated responders can use ephemeral notes to post status updates, share IOCs, or document mitigation steps. Other team members can access and collaborate on these notes, adding context.
