Incident Response Plan: How to Build Guide
In today’s digital landscape, cyberattacks and data breaches are constant threats facing businesses and organizations. A robust cybersecurity incident response plan is an essential component of any organization’s preparations for inevitably encountering a cybersecurity event or attack.
An incident response plan outlines the necessary policies, procedures, roles, and responsibilities required to systematically detect, analyze, and respond to any cybersecurity incident. The goal is to contain impacts and restore normal operations as quickly as possible. Effective incident response relies on cross-functional collaboration and planning across security, IT, legal, communications, business continuity teams, and other stakeholders.
This article provides a comprehensive overview of how to develop, implement, and maintain a cybersecurity incident response plan customized to your organization’s specific threats, vulnerabilities, and business priorities. We will cover key considerations around preparation, detection, analysis, containment, recovery, and integrating post-incident learning into enhanced resilience. With cyber risks continuing to increase, the time is now to ensure your organization has a battle-tested incident response plan ready before facing the next inevitable attack.
Key Takeaways
- A cybersecurity incident response plan outlines protocols and procedures for quickly detecting, analyzing, and containing cybersecurity events or incidents.
- The main components of an incident response plan include preparation, detection & analysis, containment & eradication, recovery, and post-incident activity.
- Effective plans align with organizational priorities and risks, comply with regulations, integrate with other emergency response plans, identify key roles & responsibilities, establish communications protocols, and incorporate cyber insurance considerations.
- Plans should be developed with input from stakeholders across the organization and regularly tested through incident response exercises and simulations.
- Key metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of an incident response plan include speed of detection, time to containment, impact on business operations, and ability to integrate learnings into enhanced cyber resilience.
Components of an Effective Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan
An optimized cybersecurity incident response plan will include protocols, procedures, and key information tailored to your organization across the following phases:
Preparation
- Risk assessment: Evaluate potential cyber risks and vulnerabilities specific to your organizational context. Identify your highest priority risks and most critical assets to prioritize protection and response protocols.
- Establish roles & responsibilities: Define Internal/external individuals or teams responsible for detecting, communicating, containing, eradicating, and recovering from incidents. Establish clear ownership and decision rights.
- Outline communications plan: Specify internal and external parties to keep informed before/during/after an incident. Establish communication objectives, channels, frequency, templates, guidelines, and approval processes.
- Incident classification & handling procedures: Set severity ratings and corresponding actions based on incident type, criticality, and potential impact. Outline incident handling processes leveraging containment strategies aligned to asset criticality.
- Early detection & monitoring: Implement controls for rapid detection of abnormal activity that may indicate an incident. Continuously monitor through technologies like SIEM, firewalls, endpoint detection, etc.
- Reference & training materials: Maintain playbooks, checklists, how-to guides, and relevant documentation to equip incident response teams. Conduct regular simulation training.
- Tools & technology preparedness: Validate capabilities and readiness of security technologies needed for detection, investigation, containment, eradication, and recovery in response to incidents.
- Supply chain & third-party coordination: Establish protocols for notifying, communicating, and coordinating with external vendors, suppliers, and partners before/during/after an incident. Include in supply chain security audits.
- Cyber insurance review: Incorporate appropriate cyber liability insurance policies into the incident response framework to provide resources needed for response and recovery activities.
Detection & Analysis
- Trigger incident response: Initiate incident response protocols after detecting abnormal activity indicating a potential cybersecurity incident based on defined indicators and thresholds.
- Assemble incident response team: Notify and mobilize appropriate internal/external stakeholders according to defined incident response roles & responsibilities.
- Classify incident: Categorize the incident type, severity, and priority based on preliminary impact assessment. Reference incident classification framework.
- Evidence gathering & handling: Initiate evidence gathering that is aligned with chain of custody protocols that support future forensic analysis while avoiding tampering.
- Determine scope & impact: Conduct an initial assessment of systems, data, and operations affected or potentially affected by the incident.
- Engage external support: If needed, leverage pre-established relationships and plans to engage cybersecurity firms or agencies to assist with response and recovery.
- Communicate internally: Keep leadership and internal stakeholders informed of progress based on communication protocols and tailored to incident severity.
Containment & Eradication
- Execute containment strategy: Implement a pre-defined containment strategy appropriate for incident type and severity to limit impact. Common strategies include isolating infected systems, shutting down systems/services, enforcing multi-factor authentication, and blocking suspicious IPs.
- Identify root cause: Perform thorough forensic investigation to determine the root cause, vulnerabilities exploited, and all assets/data impacted.
- Eliminate threat: Remove malware, inappropriate access, compromised credentials, or unstable configurations being leveraged in the attack.
- Assess expansion risk: Determine the likelihood that the attack has spread to other parts of the environment and implement controls to monitor for secondary attacks.
- Preserve evidence: Continue gathering relevant evidence while containing attack in case forensic analysis is needed during recovery and to strengthen future cyber defenses.
Recovery
- Prioritize & restore operations: Identify time-sensitive, mission-critical systems and data to focus recovery efforts on resuming these functions first. Leverage backups as appropriate to restore compromised assets.
- Remove temporary containment measures: Roll back any interim containment procedures that are no longer needed, and that may impact operations.
- Confirm threat elimination: Verify all elements of the threat have been completely eradicated and system integrity checks are clear before restoring operations.
- Assist impacted constituents: If personal or customer data is compromised, provide appropriate resources to assist those individuals in addressing risks.
- Communication updates: Maintain ongoing communications to internal and external stakeholders throughout the recovery process in alignment with plan protocols.
Post-Incident Activity
- Update documentation: Record details of incident handling, key decisions, and lessons learned throughout response. Update incident response plans and related documentation accordingly.
- Conduct debriefs: Perform organized debriefs with stakeholders involved to capture feedback and enhance future response effectiveness.
- Strengthen defenses: Implement technical and policy changes needed to prevent this specific attack vector and root cause from succeeding again in the future.
- Assess cyber insurance: Work with carriers to quantify impacts and submit claims to cover costs of recovery and losses in alignment with cyber insurance coverage.
- Provide reporting: Generate incident reports and metrics as needed for leadership, regulators, partners, or public disclosure as applicable.
What are the Key Elements of an Effective Incident Response Plan
Beyond detailing tactical response procedures, an optimized incident response plan should incorporate elements that facilitate cross-functional collaboration, alignment with broader priorities, and continuous improvement.
- Integrate with enterprise risk management: Ensure incident response protocols align with and support priorities defined in organizational risk assessments and cybersecurity strategies.
- Compliance requirements: Address incident handling requirements outlined in industry regulations, contractual obligations, and relevant laws. Common examples include GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, PCI DSS, and SOX.
- Integration with other plans: Coordinate incident response procedures with crisis communications, disaster recovery, business continuity, and backup plans for consistency.
- Defined metrics & KPIs: Establish quantifiable metrics focused on speed, impact, and effectiveness to measure performance during incidents and improve over time.
- Regular testing & updates: Conduct simulations, tabletop exercises, and penetration testing to validate the efficacy and identify plan gaps. Revise regularly based on learnings, personnel changes, or risk evolutions.
- Stakeholder inclusion: Develop a plan with input from security, IT, legal, communications, human resources, business leaders, and other internal/external stakeholders.
- Communications guidance: Provide tailored templates, protocols, and contact lists for status updates before/during/after incidents tailored to different audiences like customers, regulators, partners, and media.
- Cyber insurance integration: Detail how cyber insurance policies will support the costs of response and recovery activities following incidents.
How to Develop Your Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan
Approaching the task of creating and implementing an incident response plan for the first time can feel daunting. Follow these best practices for optimizing your chances of success:
Secure Executive Buy-In
- Present cyber incident statistics, potential business impacts, and peer examples to demonstrate need and urgency.
- Propose incident response plan initiative as an opportunity to validate and strengthen cybersecurity maturity.
- Emphasize regulatory or contractual obligations for incident preparedness within the industry.
- Position plan as an enabler of digital transformation, public trust/reputation, and risk management.
Establish Cross-Functional Team
- Identify key internal stakeholders from IT, security, legal, communications, business continuity, crisis management, and HR.
- Leverage outside expertise from cybersecurity firms or agencies if needed.
- Align team priorities, responsibilities, and communications early.
Analyze Risks & Priorities
- Review cyber incident history, threats, vulnerabilities, and asset criticality specific to your organization.
- Focus plan on defending the highest priority assets, risks, and attack scenarios.
- Select incident response standards like NIST 800-61 Rev. 2 to inform planning.
Leverage Incident Response Frameworks
- Evaluate potential frameworks like NIST CSF, ISO 27035, SANS IRP, IBM RESILIA, and Lockheed Martin Cyber Kill Chain.
- Choose an approach aligned with organizational cyber maturity and adapt with enhancements tailored to your environment.
Develop Response Playbooks
- Outline detailed response procedures and best practices for managing high-priority threats like ransomware, DDoS attacks, and insider threats based on risk analysis.
- Standardize investigative, containment, and remediation actions for faster response.
Incorporate Cyber Insurance Expertise
- Detail how cyber insurance will support the costs of restoring operations, liability protection, lost income, and PR assistance related to cyber incidents.
- Ensure carriers are closely aligned on response plan protocols that may impact coverage.
Validate Through Testing
- Conduct frequent incident response exercises and simulations to reveal plan gaps.
- Perform penetration testing to improve detection and response capabilities.
- Update the plan based on the feedback from the debriefing and lessons learned.
Incident Response Plan Maintenance
Like any critical business plan, an incident response plan requires ongoing maintenance and improvement to remain effective.
- Periodic reviews: Re-evaluate incident response plan on a quarterly or bi-annual basis for any needed adjustments based on learnings, personnel changes, or evolving risk landscape.
- Post-incident analysis: Hold debriefs after any cybersecurity incident to capture feedback on enhancing response protocols. Document details of incident handling.
- Audit compliance: Assess conformance with incident response plan requirements during audits against standards like ISO 27001, NIST CSF, and HIPAA.
- Renew training: Refresh the skills of incident responders through annual training on updated response plans and procedures.
- Monitor cyber threat landscape: Regularly assess whether evolving cyber risks warrant updating response protocols or priorities.
- Verify external capabilities: Annually validate retained third-party providers for forensic analysis, public relations, or supplemental incident response support that have maintained requisite expertise.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Incident Response Plans
Key performance indicators to quantify incident response plan effectiveness include:
- Speed of detection: The elapsed time from an incident occurring to when it is discovered internally. Lower is better.
- Time to escalate: How long does it take from incident detection to activate organized response protocols? Minimal delay indicates smooth protocols.
- Rate of false positives: Percentage of events triggering response protocols that end up not being real incidents. Lower false positives increase efficiency.
- Time to containment: The time it takes from detecting an incident to fully containing and eradicating the threat from doing further harm. Minimizing containment time limits impact.
- Impact on operations: The extent of disruption or degradation to normal business operations resulting from an incident. Less impact demonstrates resilience.
- Cyber insurance claims: The frequency of needing to file cyber insurance claims and average claim amounts can indicate response effectiveness in limiting damages from incidents. Lower is better.
- Completion of post-incident analyses: The percentage of incidents followed up by completed debriefs, and plan updates demonstrates a learning culture essential for continuous enhancement. Higher is better.
How to Develop Cyber Resilience with Effective Incident Response
An optimized cybersecurity incident response plan tailored to your organization’s unique risks and priorities is foundational for responding quickly and effectively when cyberattacks inevitably occur. However, incident response readiness’s importance extends beyond managing singular events. It’s a critical driver of your organization’s overall cyber resilience.
Effective incident response plans powered by tested response protocols institutionalize the capabilities to detect threats early, contain impacts, restore operations rapidly, and continuously improve defenses. This ultimately translates to organizational resilience in minimizing business disruption, protecting critical assets, safeguarding reputation, and navigating the turbulent cyber threat landscape.
Final Thoughts
Having a cybersecurity incident response plan is critical for any organization to be prepared for potential data breaches or cyber-attacks. By bringing together key stakeholders to develop policies, define roles, create communication protocols, and layout technical processes, an organization can greatly improve its ability to detect, respond to, and recover from cybersecurity incidents.
Establishing an incident response team, classifying incidents, training employees, setting up monitoring systems, and testing the plan through simulations will help ensure an effective response.
With proper planning and testing, organizations can minimize the damage from cyber-attacks and maintain operations during an incident. Having a thoughtful, detailed response plan is essential for cyber defense.
Frequently Asked Questions About Incident Response Plans
What are the key components of a cybersecurity incident response plan?
The main elements of an effective incident response plan include defined roles and responsibilities, incident classification framework, monitoring and detection protocols, communication and reporting procedures, containment strategies, eradication and recovery processes, integration with other business continuity plans, post-incident analysis, and regular testing.
Who should be involved in incident response planning?
Key stakeholders who should help develop or provide input on the incident response plan include security, IT, legal/compliance, communications/PR, business unit leaders, HR, corporate risk teams, and third-party vendors or partners.
What incidents or threats should an incident response plan focus on?
The plan should focus on addressing scenarios that pose the highest cybersecurity risks to the organization based on assessments of critical assets, vulnerabilities, threat history, and priorities like preserving operations, brand reputation, and compliance. Common priorities are ransomware, DDoS attacks, insider threats, and data breaches.
How often should organizations test their incident response plans?
Most experts recommend that organizations test elements of their incident response plans at least quarterly through tabletop exercises, emergency drills, simulations, and penetration testing. Testing validates effectiveness and uncovers plan gaps.
What are important metrics to measure the success of an incident response plan?
Key performance indicators include detection speed, time to containment, impact on operations, effectiveness of recovering normal functions, minimizing insurance claims, and integration of response learnings into improved resilience.
How can organizations keep their incident response plans current?
Plans should be updated continually based on insights from post-incident debriefs, evolving cyber threats, changes to business priorities or personnel, compliance drivers, and at least annual validation testing. A static plan deteriorates quickly.
Jinu Arjun
