We have all witnessed how a cyber security breach can cripple IT systems and tarnish both organisational and individual reputations. The fallout from such incidents can be devastating, affecting not just the technological infrastructure but also the trust and confidence of stakeholders.
When a cyber incident occurs, an immediate and composed response, coupled with expert guidance, is essential to mitigate the damage. Time is of the essence, and having a tried and tested cyber incident response plan is key to handling these crises effectively.
In this blog, we highlight the key steps to developing a cyber incident response plan, ensuring your organisation is prepared to handle any cyber threat swiftly and efficiently.
What is a Cyber Incident Response Plan?
A cyber incident response plan is a documented set of procedures that outlines how an organisation will respond to a cyber incident. It includes steps to detect, contain, eradicate, and recover from a cyber attack. The goal of a cyber incident response plan is to minimise the damage caused by an attack and to ensure that business operations can continue as normal.
Key Steps to Developing a Cyber Incident Response Plan
Creating an effective cyber incident response plan requires a collaborative approach between IT, security, legal, and business departments. Here are the key steps:
1. Identify the assets to be protected: Determine which data, systems, and resources are critical to your organisation’s operations and need protection. Your backups are an important asset during any incident, so these should be prioritised
2. Identify your legal, regulatory or contractual reporting requirements: Visibility of your reporting requirements will help to prioritise your cyber incident response investigation. Certain contractual requirements, such as PCI DSS have specific rules around this
3. Identify potential cyber threats: Understand the types of cyber threats that could impact your organisation, such as malware, phishing attacks, or insider threats
4. Business continuation: Whilst an incident will likely take precedence, having a list of key business requirements helps to prioritise recovery activities in favour of the most important functions
5. Develop an incident response team: Form a team of individuals from various departments who will be responsible for managing the response to a cyber incident. It is also important to maintain an offline list of key contacts, and available contractual SLAs for third parties
6. Develop incident response procedures: Create detailed procedures for detecting, containing, eradicating, and recovering from cyber incidents. This should include communication plans and roles and responsibilities for each team member and may also include a pre-authorised set of activities
7. Communications: Establish communication strategies for your customers, suppliers, stakeholders, and investors, as this is key during an incident
8. Test and refine the plan: Regularly test the plan through tabletop exercises and simulations to identify gaps and ensure all team members are trained and prepared to respond to a cyber incident
9. Wellbeing: A cyber incident is a significant event that can greatly impact your employees. Implementing a wellbeing policy to ensure staff have appropriate support during an incident is important and can help maintain overall productivity. This may include providing food delivery, transportation, accommodation, and scheduled breaks to prevent exhaustion
The Importance of Regular Testing and Refinement
Once your cyber incident response plan has been developed, it should be tested and refined on a regular basis. Conducting tabletop exercises and simulations helps to identify gaps in the plan and ensures that all team members are trained and ready to respond effectively. Regular testing also allows your organisation to adapt to new threats and improve your response capabilities continuously.
The Importance of an Incident Response Retainer Alongside your Cyber Incident Response Plan
An incident response retainer is a key element of a comprehensive cyber incident response plan. Having a retainer agreement in place with trusted cyber security specialists such as Daisy ensures that your organisation has immediate access to expert incident response services when a cyber attack occurs.
Benefits of an incident response retainer include:
- Immediate availability: Guaranteed rapid response times from cyber security experts who are familiar with your environment and specific needs
- Proactive preparedness: Regular reviews and updates to your incident response plan, ensuring it remains effective against emerging threats
- Enhanced recovery: Faster containment and eradication of threats, minimising downtime and reducing the overall impact on your business
- 24/7/365 monitoring: Continuous monitoring of your IT environment to detect and respond to threats in real-time
- Cost efficiency: Reducing the need for a full-time, in-house incident response team, which can be cost-prohibitive for many organisations
Need Some Guidance?
We strongly believe that developing a cyber incident response plan is essential for protecting your organisation from cyber threats. By following the steps outlined above, you can create a plan that will help you detect, contain, eradicate, and recover from a cyber incident, minimising damage and helping to ensure business continuity.
Contact us today to discuss your cyber security needs and explore how our comprehensive solutions can help protect your data and provide you with peace of mind.