Introduction
The faster you can identify suspicious activity on your network, the faster you can respond to the threat actor. But then…do you know what to do to report the breach and kick start your company’s incident response plan?
Cybersecurity incidents are becoming more and more common, and it is essential to have an incident response plan in place. A plan can help organizations prepare for, spot, respond to and recover from a cybersecurity incident. This documentation will include useful information like the roles and responsibilities of personnel involved in the response process, the steps they should take when responding to a security incident, and what reporting and disclosure protocols need to be followed.
In short, why is it so important to have an incident response plan in place before a threat actor attacks? It’s a matter of when, not if, you are the target of a cyberattack these days. Having a formal plan and training in place will help organization prepare to notice, react to and deal with a security breach or other cybersecurity-related issue.
What to Expect From Your Incident Response Plan
Every organization will have their own personalized incident response plan because every business is different! Yours might include notifying Simon Sez down in I.T. to come up from Floor 2 and have a look, or a number to reach a specialist during off-hours at (555) 555-1800.
Although the specifics may change, the main goal is to prevent you from making a mistake when you encounter suspicious behavior on your systems or network. If you don’t react immediately, the threat actor has more time to dig deeper into your company’s private files. If you try to stop them yourself, you could open new doors for them by accident. Knowing where to report odd activity lets the experts (that’s us!) step in right away and chase the unauthorized user out, without any exposed or stolen data.
Depending on your role in your organization, you might also be expected to carry out certain responsibilities after a security incident. Maybe you’re on the team who drafts up communication to send out to any affected parties whose data might have been exposed in the breach, for example. Perhaps you’re a manager who must come up with engaging ways to re-train your team on the areas in their security awareness training with which they’re having trouble.
Each and every one of the people in your organization are gatekeepers of the private data that you handle. Depending on what you do and who you take on as a client, your incident response procedures and cyber-defense protocols could be pretty complex! That’s why you should become familiar with yours; you need to know what roles and responsibilities you play.
Conclusion
An incident response plan is an essential part your security strategy. It outlines exactly what and when you need to take certain steps to shut down a security threat to your systems. It teaches you how to detect, respond, and recover from the incident. It also provides guidance on how to prevent more cyber-attacks like that from happening again.
Minimize the damage and disruption caused by security incidents by learning and relying on your incident response plan until those best practices come as natural to you as a reflex. How well do you know yours?
References
