A cybersecurity incident response plan (CIRP) can help businesses proactively respond to cyber-attacks and data breaches. This article will discuss an incident response plan, followed by the different phases of a CRIP and what elements it should include.
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Cyber attacks may be a massive threat to businesses of all sizes. While predicting a cyber-attack may be impossible, organisations can create a strategic response plan to potentially deal with such incidents and mitigate the damage. According to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), there were 256 malicious or criminal attacks, 190 human errors and 18 system fault notifications received under the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme. The data above is from attacks that happened in the period starting 1 July to 31 December 2021.
Having said that, being prepared in such scenarios can help businesses respond effectively to cyber breaches. A cybersecurity incident response plan can help organisations deal with cyber bullies’ altering tricks and attempts.
What is an incident response plan?
A cyber incident response plan is a documented strategic plan containing instructions and measures that cyber security professionals should take in the event of a cyber attack. A cyber attack could be of different types such as data leak, ransomware attack, data breach, phishing, malware attack or loss of confidential information.
Since any cyber attack can negatively impact an organisation across different functions, the response plan you create should consider every operational aspect. The overall strategy should ideally cater to all business departments, such as legal, finance, human resources, and other essential business operations.
How can cybersecurity software help businesses?
Cybersecurity software can potentially help businesses protect their electronically stored data from unauthorised access. Such tools can also help prevent data theft, malware attack, and system usage with unknown third parties.
What are the different phases of an incident response plan?
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), there are basically four phases of a cyber security incident response plan including:
- Preparation: This step would involve preparing your team members and other business professionals for their roles and responsibilities in case of a cyber-attack.
- Detection and analysis: Businesses would need to monitor and first detect the incident’s root cause. They would need to do a complete investigation of the incident, such as the type of incident, where it happened, and the magnitude of the problem. After an incident is analysed and prioritised, it should be reported to the concerned authorities, including the head of information security, chief information officer (CIO) and people from other departments.
- Containment eradication and recovery: The next few steps would involve shutting off the affecting systems, collecting incident evidence, determining the attacking path and the intensity, updating and upgrading security processes and lastly, recovering the lost data and restoring the systems.
- Post-incident activity: Businesses should reflect on the incident closely after putting an end to the incident and updating the security systems. Moreover, businesses should also assess the overall damage and take recommendations from the team members to make the recovery process more efficient.
What should a cybersecurity incident response plan include?
There might be many aspects of how a business should create incident response plans. Having said that, below, we have given some tips on what organisations should include in making their response plan more structured and effective.
1. Conduct an overall operational risk assessment
Businesses should conduct an overall analysis of the potential risks. They might need to identify the possibility and the severity of risks in all business areas. This way, they could pre-assess the gaps in the system and then work accordingly to upgrade their security systems.
2. Identify the different types of potential threats
The response plan should have a well-drafted procedure and measures taken in case of a breach. A cyber-attack could be of many different types, and a response plan should ideally include resolving actions for each type. For instance, while a minor data breach can be handled internally by two or three members, a significant malware attack may require full expert consultation and help from external agencies.
3. Establish a breach evaluation and response team
Businesses might need to set up an experienced breach evaluation and response team. The team members would be solely responsible for evaluating potential threats and providing responses and solutions during a cyber attack.
4. Design a well-structured response action checklist
Organisations would also need to create a response checklist containing immediate action items to be completed instantly after the company learns about a potential breach. Some key steps would include recording the time, date and type of violation, informing the concerned teams, taking expert opinions on the situation and making a list of action items to be undertaken over the next few days.
5. Keep track of breach-related rights and obligations
Every organisation should ideally keep track of all the legal, security and other breach-related rights and obligations. In addition, they should ensure that their business carefully compiles with all the applicable federal and state laws. This way, their security system would remain up-to-date with the ongoing rules and regulations, and they might be able to foresee any potential business risks.
6. Maintain an incident event record
Businesses should also record all the steps taken during and after the cyber breach. This way, companies would be able to understand the efficiency of their response and improve their actions and measures, if necessary.
How often should organisations review their incident response plan?
Businesses can review their response plan every six months or annually. You should ideally aim to incorporate all the best practices and measures into your plans. However, a data breach response plan would need updating in case there are newly released regulations or some possible changes in data privacy and cybersecurity regulations by different states.
What’s the key takeaway?
Cyber attacks and data breaches can incur high costs and damage your business. A practical and well-crafted incident response plan can help companies protect their confidential data in such a scenario. In addition, a response plan can also prove effective in case a data breach happens. While each incident plan would be unique in its setup, laying out general operational rules and instant remedial measures might prove effective when an actual incident occurs.
