A Cyber Incident Response Plan is a concise document that tells IT and security staff the immediate steps to take after a cybersecurity incident. Why do they need a plan? Because in the midst of all the chaos and panic that a security incident can induce, it can be difficult to think straight.
A good Incident Response (IR) Plan contains the exact, premeditated actions on containment, eradication and recovery that are most suited to your organisation. Having a plan in place means there’s no room for confusion, disagreements or frenzied decision-making when you’re literally in a warzone.
So how do you create this plan that is supposed to help you control the damage when you’re under attack? Who designs the plan and who decides what steps to include? Even if the plan is ready, what guarantee will you have that it will actually work for different types of incidents?
If all these questions plague you, you’ve landed at the right place. We simplify the answers to all of the above and more in this blog.
Topics Covered:
1. Core Components of a Cyber Incident Response Plan
2. How Can you Create an Effective IR Plan?
3. How to Test if the Incident Response Plan is good enough?
Since you’re looking for steps on how to create an effective Incident Response Plan, you probably already know what it is. So we’ll keep this part brief.
A Cybersecurity Response Plan is a strategic document that captures everything you need to do to prepare for and respond to an incident. The primary objective of creating this plan is to ensure minimal downtime and seamless business continuity. It also helps you protect sensitive data of your customers and partners during data breaches.
The document provides guidelines on the 6 core steps of Incident Response. Remember, this is a plan - it's not a Playbook. A Cyber Incident Response Plan has to be studied before an incident. A Playbook is read during the incident. Most importantly, the plan should be easy to read and follow by every type of audience. It should not contain processes. It's not a procedure document but a reference document.
For more expert and practical inputs on what exactly a Cybersecurity Incident Response plan should or shouldn't be, don't forget to check out our regular, live and interactive workshops on Creating a Cyber Incident Response Plan.
As per guidance from NIST Computer Security Incident Handling Guide, these are the steps that the plan should cover:
The biggest benefit that a good Cyber Incident Response Plan yields is that it helps you cover all the bases. In the aftermath of a cyber attack, it is easy to forget one or more critical response steps. This can result in more problems at a later stage.
However, if you follow all the actions prescribed in your plan (that was made at a calmer moment), you can be sure that you’ve done everything that needed to be done.
It’s also important to remember that your IR Plan must be yours. What this means is that it should be specific to your organisation, its critical assets and top threats. It should define individual roles and responsibilities based on your specific organisational structure and HR departments.
But how do you achieve that? Read the next section to know all the details.
Before you start creating a Cyber Incident Response Plan, you must consider training your key staff members in Cyber Incident Response Planning. Our NCSC Assured Training in Cyber Incident Planning and Response is the perfect start.
The course covers all the key aspects of preparation and response to a cyber attack. Our experts deep dive into the most critical aspects of creating a Cyber Incident Response Plan. They show you how to avoid fluff and jargon and stick to steps that truly matter.
Many of the past participants of the course have shared how it was a true eye-opener for them. Replete with real-life anecdotes and case studies, the Incident Response training course will help you discover aspects of incident management and threat mitigation that you may not have thought about before.
All in all, the course lets your team walk off more aware of the current threat landscape and what they can do to manage a security event at your organisation. Of course, they also develop a deeper understanding of how to best design and create a Cyber Incident Response Plan that is best suited for your business.
Once your team has developed a good understanding of how to create the Incident Response Plan, you can use our FREE Cyber Incident Response Plan template. Created by the experts behind the NCSC Assured training, this template is easily customisable and extremely user friendly. Make it your own by tailoring it to your threat context and your most precious business assets.
You might still feel overwhelmed and/or under confident about your IR plan. This is common amongst our clients because the Incident Response Plan is such a vital document to your overall cyber resilience.
In this case, you may want to enlist the help of our Virtual Cybersecurity experts. In the most flexible and cost-effective format, our Virtual Cyber Assistants will help you create and/or review and refresh your Cyber Incident Response Plan. They’ll ensure it’s up to scratch and takes the risks and threats most important to your business into account.
Now you have a good understanding of how to create a cybersecurity incident response plan. But how will you know that the plan that you’ve created actually holds water? How do you address those nagging doubts about whether or not the plan will actually help save the day when you’re under attack?
The answer is quite straightforward. You need to test the viability of your plans on a regular basis. Continuous improvement is the cornerstone of cyber resilience. And you can achieve this by conducting regular Cyber Crisis Tabletop Exercises.
These Cyber Attack Tabletop Exercises test your Incident Response Plan and the capabilities of your team members in a simulated attack scenario. The facilitator creates an attack-like environment where your team members are forced to think and act like they would if a real cyber incident did occur.
These cyber drills truly test your team’s decision-making, makes them more familiar with the steps in the IR plan and validates the effectiveness of your plan itself. The best part is that they act like a kind of rehearsal of your Cyber Incident Response strategy, making the steps in your plan a part of the muscle memory of the key in incident responders.
In case you find any gaps in your Cyber Response Plan or your team’s ability to implement it, you can then easily go ahead and plug them with the expert recommendations of our facilitators.