• News
  • Security
  • Products
  • About Seqrite
Seqrite Blog Blog
  • News
  • Security
  • Products
  • About Seqrite
Home  /  Security  /  5 steps for a successful incident response plan
Incident Response Plan
25 August 2017

5 steps for a successful incident response plan

Written by Seqrite
Seqrite
Security
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

There is no foolproof security system anywhere in the world yet. Despite the best of security measures and best of the teams, breaches do occur. There is no point living in a make-believe world where implementation of the top of the line tools and processes ensures that the organization is 100% safe from cyber threats. All organizations must prepare for the eventuality of a breach with an Incident Response plan (IR Plan). Incident response plan helps organizations to respond to an incident in an organized, coordinated manner. A well-designed incident response plan will help to mitigate the incident quickly and minimize loss instead of creating more chaos. A good IR plan must be well documented, well tested and validated to ensure that it meets the organization’s requirements. At the least, the below five points must be a part of every incident plan.

1. Incident Identification

The plan must include a clear criteria or guidelines on when and how a security incident is declared. It may be a single massive incidence or a bunch of individual set of indicators which may indicate an incident (e.g. sudden deletion of x number of records, network speed reduction beyond a certain point, despite no apparent increase in genuine traffic etc).  The IR plan should include the following:

  • Standard guidelines to identify and declare occurrence of an incident
  • Criteria to define major and minor incident
  • Criteria to define the severity of the incident
  • Response time for an incident of each severity
  • A dispute resolution process, to avoid conflict at the time of an incident

Often, different teams will have a different view of the same incident. They will give different severity and impact and thus resolution times for the same incident. In such cases, a dispute resolution mechanism is imperative so that incident gets the correct attention.

2. Incident Response Roles and Responsibilities

Everyone in the organization must know what they are supposed to do and who they are supposed to contact when an incident occurs. The IR plan should have the following:

  • First point of contact to inform about the incident (incident help line)
  • Notification matrix which identifies the individuals who must be notified when an incident occurs
  • Contact details for each area (networks, servers, individual systems, individual departments etc) for incident management
  • Steps to be carried out by each team/department/individual during the incident along with time lines (Response times)
  • Interdependency and communication matrix
  • Escalation matrix
  • Incident closure criteria

The closure of the incident occurs when all impact teams give the clearance that their areas are working as expected. Until all teams give a green signal, the incident should stay open.

3. Incident Response Communication Plan

While we touched upon the topic of communication, it is imperative that there is a detailed communication plan with following details at the minimum:

  • Emergency help desk contact for the incident
  • Notification list
  • Primary emergency contact for each area
  • A secondary emergency contact for each area
  • Emergency contact from vendors (which are connected to the organization’s network)
  • Communication protocol for interdepartmental communication during the incident
  • Escalation protocol during the incident
  • Regular incident update communication protocol and frequency
  • Incident closure approval and communication protocol
  • Designated communications manager during the incident

During an incident, there is a high probability of chaos. Thus, it is important to have a well-defined communication protocol which should be followed. The communication plan must be practiced at regular intervals to ensure a smooth flow of information in case of an incident.

4. Validation and Improvisation of IR Plan

Cyber threats keep changing in their nature and intensity; hence, the incident plan must also not be static. It must be frequently reviewed and updated to reflect the contemporary threat scenario. IR plan must be published, tested and validated regularly to ensure impactful execution of the same during an incident. After every incident, there must be a review of the actual response to the incident and the learnings must be incorporated into the fresh plan for improved effectiveness.

5. Impact of the Incident

Organizations hold immense consumer data and the impact of theft or loss of this data is very high both on consumers and companies. Enterprises are forced to protect their consumer’s data due to many regulations and related penalties and also to avoid loss of credibility. Every incident plan must identify the incidents that can occur and assess their impact on the organization. In an event of an incident, the impact analysis must be carried out as soon as possible so that organization understands the full repercussions of the breach.

Cyber attacks and breaches are a reality of life today. It is estimated that every organization will suffer a data breach at least once. Just like a well-planned first aid kit in the house, a good, well-tested incident response plan helps in responding to an incident with minimum surprises and least losses.

As an IT security partner for your business, Seqrite provides comprehensive endpoint security from advanced cyber threats. To know more, visit our website or

seqrite_cta1

 Previous PostHow cyber criminals attract users by launching interesting phishi...
Next Post  Not investing in cybersecurity can lead to ‘Inverse ROIR...
Seqrite
About Seqrite

Follow us for the latest updates and insights related to security for enterprise networks. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay...

Articles by Seqrite »

Related Posts

  • Is your Router exposed to cyber threats

    Is your router exposed to cyber threats? Here is how to safeguard it.

    July 30, 2020
  • Snake ransomware stings to spread its venom in the veins of enterprise networks.

    Snake Ransomware brings impending doom to enterprise networks

    July 10, 2020
  • APT harbingers are using Honey Traps to attack Indian Defence.

    Operation ‘Honey Trap’: APT36 Targets Defence Organizations in India

    July 8, 2020

No Comments

Leave a Reply.Your email address will not be published.

Cancel reply

CAPTCHA Image
Refresh Image

Popular Posts

  • The Data breach inferno burning big-ticket businesses The Data breach inferno burning big-ticket businesses February 5, 2021
  • Pharma Sector needs to streamline its insides to avoid cyberattacks Pharma Sector needs to streamline its insides to avoid cyberattacks February 12, 2021
  • Turn the Page: Cybersecurity Predictions for 2021 & beyond Turn the Page: Cybersecurity Predictions for 2021 & beyond February 18, 2021

Featured Authors

  • Seqrite
    Seqrite

    Follow us for the latest updates and insights related to security for...

    Read more..
  • Viraj Talikotkar
    Viraj Talikotkar

    Viraj is a Lead Technical Writer at Quick Heal Technologies. He is always on...

    Read more..
  • Sanjay Katkar
    Sanjay Katkar

    Sanjay Katkar is the Joint Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer of...

    Read more..

Latest Posts

  • Businesses now worried about the surge in COVID-19 infodemic

    Businesses now worried about the surge in COVID-19 infodemic

    February 26, 2021
  • Turn the Page: Cybersecurity Predictions for 2021 & beyond

    Turn the Page: Cybersecurity Predictions for 2021 & beyond

    February 18, 2021
  • Pharma Sector needs to streamline its insides to avoid cyberattacks

    Pharma Sector needs to streamline its insides to avoid cyberattacks

    February 12, 2021

Stay Updated!

Topics

Antivirus For Linux (10) apt (9) BYOD (9) COVID-19 (10) Cyber-attack (31) cyber-attacks (56) cyberattacks (12) Cybersecurity (279) cyber security (25) Cyber threat (29) cyber threats (44) Data (11) data breach (50) data breaches (27) data loss (28) data loss prevention (33) data protection (21) data security (13) DLP (49) Encryption (16) endpoint security (102) Enterprise security (14) EPS (9) Exploit (12) firewall (11) hackers (9) IoT (10) malware (58) malware attack (22) malware attacks (12) MDM (25) mobile device management (9) Network security (18) Patch Management (12) phishing (16) Ransomware (56) ransomware attack (29) ransomware attacks (30) ransomware protection (12) Seqrite (24) Seqrite Encryption (27) Seqrite EPS (33) Seqrite Services (16) UTM (34) Vulnerability (10)

Products

  • Endpoint Security (EPS)
  • Seqrite Encryption Manager
  • Seqrite Endpoint Security Cloud
  • Cloud Security
  • Seqrite mSuite
  • Seqrite MobiSMART
  • Unified Threat Management
  • Seqrite Secure Web Gateway
  • Antivirus for Server
  • Antivirus for Linux

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Datasheets
  • Threat Reports
  • Manuals
  • Case Studies

About Us

  • Company Overview
  • Leadership
  • Why choose SEQRITE?
  • Awards & Certifications
  • Newsroom

Archives

  • By Date
  • By Category

© 2020 Quick Heal Technologies Ltd. (Formerly Known as Quick Heal Technologies Pvt. Ltd.) Cookie Policies Privacy Policies

Our website uses cookies. Cookies enable us to provide the best experience possible and help us understand how visitors use our website.
By browsing this website, you agree to our cookie policy.