Enhancing security: The crucial role of incident response plans

In today’s digital landscape, the importance of an effective security plan cannot be overstated. Such a plan is vital for safeguarding sensitive information and critical assets. Within this comprehensive security plan, there is a particular emphasis on the role played by an incident response plan (IRP). While the security plan serves as a foundation for protection, it is the IRP that serves as the lifeline, ensuring a swift and efficient recovery process following a security breach.

A robust security plan constitutes a cornerstone in an organisation’s endeavor to protect its data, systems and reputation. This all-encompassing strategy consists of several key components, including:

1. Risk assessment: This involves identifying and evaluating potential security risks and vulnerabilities, along with categorising assets based on their importance and sensitivity.
2. Access control: This entails implementing stringent access controls to limit user privileges and enhancing security through multifactor authentication.
3. Security awareness training: This component focuses on educating employees about security best practices and potential threats. It also fosters a culture of security consciousness within the organisation.
4. Regular audits and monitoring: Continuous security audits and assessments are conducted, supplemented by the use of intrusion detection systems and security monitoring tools to proactively detect and respond to threats.

Despite the robust security measures put in place, it is essential to acknowledge that no security system can guarantee absolute invulnerability. Security breaches and incidents may still occur, necessitating the need for a well-prepared IRP. The establishment of an IRP, regardless of an organisation’s size, involves a series of critical steps to prepare for effective incident response:

1. Incident response team: An incident response team is formed, comprising trained professionals with specific roles and responsibilities, including incident coordinators, investigators, communicators and technical experts.
2. Defining incident categories: Incidents are categorized based on their severity and potential impact, allowing for efficient prioritisation of responses.
3. Asset inventory: To begin any functional cyber security or risk program, organisations must uncover and understand the scope of assets and the assets’ related operational and security states. Without basic visibility, it is highly challenging and time-intensive to uncover vulnerabilities within systems. Further, due to the time it takes to conduct a manual asset inventory, inventories conducted without automation are highly inaccurate, making it impossible for organisations to effectively triage or remediate any event, incident or active exploit.
4. Documentation: Detailed documentation is maintained for the IRP, encompassing contact information for team members, vendors and relevant authorities. This documentation is vital for coordination during an incident.
5. Monitoring and detection: Continuous monitoring of network traffic, system logs and security alerts, supplemented by anomaly detection through intrusion detection systems, intrusion prevention systems, and security information and event management tools, is crucial for identifying suspicious activity and potential incidents.
6. Incident containment: Swift isolation of affected systems or networks is critical to prevent the spread of threats. Additionally, preserving evidence for forensic analysis and potential legal actions is imperative.
7. Eradication: This phase focuses on eliminating the root cause of the incident, which may involve removing malware, patching vulnerabilities or addressing configuration issues.

Effective communication is central to an IRP, both internally and externally:

8. Internal communication: Relevant stakeholders, including executives, IT staff, and employees, are promptly informed about the incident and its impact.
9. External communication: In cases necessitating external communication, notifications are made to external parties such as law enforcement, regulatory bodies, customers, and the public, in compliance with legal requirements and company policies. Establishing media management guidelines is critical for managing inquiries and public relations.
10. Recovery: Ensuring that affected systems are fully operational and secure before reintegrating them into the network is essential. A robust backup procedure plays a pivotal role in this phase.
11. Lessons learned: Post-incident reviews are conducted to assess the response and identify areas for improvement. The findings from these reviews inform updates to the IRP to enhance future responses.
12. Post-incident analysis: A detailed forensic analysis is carried out to determine the incident’s scope, how it occurred, and what data or assets were compromised. If possible, efforts are made to attribute the incident to specific threat actors or groups.
13. Reporting: Incident reports for internal and external use are prepared as required to ensure transparency.
14. Legal and regulatory compliance: Ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations, such as data breach notification requirements, is critical.
15. Continuous improvement: Ongoing training of the incident response team, tabletop exercises to test the IRP’s effectiveness, and staying updated with the latest threat intelligence are essential components of continual improvement.
16. Automation: The primary benefit of incident response automation is speed. Automation can accomplish time-consuming tasks much quicker than a human analyst, cutting down response time and allowing analysts to maximise attention given to the aspects of the process that require their expertise. Another benefit is reducing the number of alerts an analyst sees by automating the management of low-risk events and likely false positives. Most security teams face an overwhelming volume of incidents, so automation is a useful way to let them focus on high-risk threats and important tasks.

Leadership buy-in is a very important step when developing an IRP. First you must emphasise the critical role of an Incident Response Plan (IRP) in cyber security. Highlight how an IRP ensures swift and efficient responses to security breaches, minimising potential damage. Showcase real-world examples of incidents and their impact, underlining the importance of preparedness. Illustrate the return on investment (RoI) of an IRP by demonstrating how it reduces recovery costs and safeguards the organisation’s reputation. Align the IRP with business objectives by emphasizing its role in maintaining operational continuity and regulatory compliance. Engage leadership in IRP development, involve them in decision-making, and stress the legal obligations related to incident response. Present clear plans and budgets for the IRP, and measure and report progress regularly to showcase its effectiveness in mitigating cyber security risks.

In summary, an incident response plan is the linchpin that ensures swift, effective and minimally disruptive responses to security breaches. It represents a proactive approach to incident management that can make the difference between a minor disruption and a catastrophic breach. As security experts, it is our duty to underscore the significance of both security plans and incident response plans in safeguarding the digital landscape amidst an ever-evolving threat landscape. Cooperation in all levels of the organisation are a must to ensure an effective incident response plan. A perfect example is ISACA’s Ransomware Incident Management guide. This resource includes a robust checklist and guidance featuring steps you can take to improve ransomware readiness across key areas of planning and preparation, identification and detection, analysis, containment, eradication, recovery and postmortem, lessons learned, and after actions.

Chris McGowan is the principal of information security professional practices on the ISACA Content Development and Services team. In this role, he leads information security thought leadership initiatives relevant to ISACA’s constituents. McGowan is a highly accomplished US Navy veteran with nearly 23 years of experience spanning multidisciplinary security and cyber operations.