Vault or Revoke: Guidance and Governance for Incident Response Teams

As the pace of code deployment accelerates, so too does the complexity of managing security vulnerabilities, particularly when it comes to leaked credentials. The traditional approach of immediately revoking access can sometimes exacerbate the issue by disrupting production systems, highlighting the need for a more nuanced strategy that balances incident response with secret management. Effective governance requires a comprehensive inventory of secrets and metadata to inform decision-making during incidents, enabling security teams to discern the impact of revoking a credential. Secret management platforms, like GitGuardian, bridge this gap by providing real-time detection of exposed secrets and maintaining a detailed record of their usage, which facilitates informed responses. GitGuardian's approach integrates institutional knowledge into the incident response process, reducing reliance on individual developers and transforming secret management into a proactive and systematic practice, supported by clear playbooks and governance frameworks.