Develop incident management plans

Establishing a robust incident management plan is crucial for mitigating the impacts of security incidents. This foundational document guides your organization in responding efficiently, ensuring that teams are well-prepared to conduct operations during an incident and restore services with minimal disruption.

Best Practices

Establish a Comprehensive Incident Response Plan

• Document clear roles and responsibilities for incident response team members, ensuring everyone knows their function during an incident. This clarity is crucial for effective and rapid response.
• Create detailed incident classification standards to prioritize incidents based on severity and potential impact. This helps teams focus on the most critical threats first.
• Include communication protocols that define how information is shared internally and externally during an incident. This helps maintain message consistency and keeps stakeholders informed.
• Incorporate partner and third-party escalation processes into your plan to ensure that you can quickly access additional resources and expertise if needed.
• Regularly review and update the incident response plan to account for new threats, regulatory changes, and lessons learned from previous incidents. This ensures that your plan remains relevant and effective.
• Conduct regular training sessions and simulations for the incident response team to practice responding to different types of incidents. This helps build confidence and improves team coordination in real scenarios.
• Utilize tools for logging and monitoring that align with your incident response plan, being proactive in ensuring visibility into your environment. This helps detect incidents early and supports forensic investigations.

Questions to ask your team

• Is there a documented incident response plan in place?
• Have key stakeholders been identified and assigned roles in the incident response team?
• How often is the incident response plan reviewed and updated?
• Are there established communication protocols for notifying stakeholders during an incident?
• What training and drills are conducted to prepare teams for executing the incident response plan?
• Are tools and resources readily available for the incident response team?
• How do you ensure that lessons learned from past incidents are incorporated into your incident management plans?

Who should be doing this?

Incident Response Manager

• Develop and maintain the incident response plan
• Coordinate incident response activities across teams
• Conduct post-incident reviews to improve processes
• Act as the primary point of contact during incidents

Security Analyst

• Monitor for security incidents and anomalies
• Analyze incidents to determine root cause and impact
• Participate in incident response drills and training
• Prepare incident reports for management and stakeholders

IT Operations Team

• Implement preventive measures and detection tools
• Assist in isolating and containing incidents
• Restore systems to a known good state post-incident
• Maintain up-to-date documentation for systems

Communication Lead

• Develop communication plans for internal and external stakeholders
• Ensure timely notifications during an incident
• Manage public relations and media communication as needed
• Keep all parties informed during incident response efforts

Legal and Compliance Officer

• Ensure incident response actions comply with legal and regulatory requirements
• Team up with incident response teams to assess legal implications
• Manage documentation and reporting for compliance purposes
• Provide guidance on privacy and data protection issues during incidents

What evidence shows this is happening in your organization?

• Incident Response Plan Template: A comprehensive template for developing an incident response plan that outlines roles, responsibilities, and procedures for detecting, responding to, and recovering from security incidents.
• Incident Response Playbook: A structured playbook that provides step-by-step guidance on how to handle specific types of incidents, including escalation procedures and communication protocols.
• Incident Management Policy: A formal policy document that defines the organization’s approach to incident management, including objectives, scopes, and governance structures.
• Post-Incident Review Report Template: A template for conducting post-incident reviews that captures lessons learned, incident details, and recommendations for improving future incident responses.
• Incident Response Checklist: A practical checklist that guides the incident response team through the essential steps to take during an incident, ensuring consistent and effective responses.
• Incident Response Training Guide: A guide for training employees on incident response processes, emphasizing roles within the response team and the importance of drills and exercises.
• Incident Communication Strategy: A strategy document outlining how to communicate with stakeholders during an incident, including templates for internal and external communications.
• Incident Recovery Plan: A plan detailing recovery procedures and actions required to restore operations to a known good state after an incident has been resolved.

Cloud Services

AWS

• AWS CloudTrail: Enables continuous monitoring and recording of account activity across your AWS infrastructure, allowing for detailed forensic analysis in the event of an incident.
• AWS Security Hub: Provides a comprehensive view of your security alerts and security posture across your AWS accounts, enabling effective incident response coordination.
• AWS Lambda: Allows you to run code in response to events (e.g., security alerts) without provisioning or managing servers, making it ideal for automation in incident response.

Azure

• Azure Security Center: Provides unified security management and advanced threat protection across hybrid cloud workloads, assisting in incident detection and response.
• Azure Sentinel: A cloud-native SIEM solution that uses machine learning to analyze security threats in your environment and facilitates incident investigation.
• Azure Logic Apps: Enables automation of workflows and incident response processes, helping you quickly contain and mitigate security incidents.

Google Cloud Platform

• Google Cloud Security Command Center: Provides visibility into your security and data risks across Google Cloud services, allowing for effective incident management and response.
• Google Cloud Functions: A serverless execution environment that can respond to changes and events, enabling automation of incident response actions.
• Google Cloud Logging: Collects and stores logs from your applications and infrastructure, providing critical data for forensic analysis during security incidents.

Question: How do you anticipate, respond to, and recover from incidents?
Pillar: Security (Code: SEC)