In Part 2 of our spotlight series on incident response, Zandre Janse van Vuuren explains how to create a comprehensive Incident Response Plan for your organisation.
By Zandre Janse van Vuuren | Service Delivery Manager: Cyber DFIR, BUI
In Part 1, we highlighted the importance of having an Incident Response Plan (IRP) to minimise damage, reduce recovery time, and secure sensitive data during a cybersecurity incident. Now, let’s dive into how to create an effective IRP for your organisation, with practical, step-by-step guidelines you can follow.
Step 1: Define your objectives and scope
The foundation of any effective IRP begins with setting clear objectives and defining the scope. Objectives help align your incident response efforts with your organisation’s goals, risk tolerance, and regulatory requirements. Typical objectives include:
- minimising data loss;
- ensuring business continuity;
- reducing recovery time;
- and protecting your business reputation.
The scope defines the types of incidents the IRP covers and may vary depending on industry standards or regulatory guidelines. For instance, a healthcare provider may need a specific scope for protecting patient data, while a financial institution may focus on transaction security and fraud prevention. By establishing scope early on, you can ensure that your IRP is comprehensive yet focused.
Step 2: Identify key stakeholders and roles
An IRP functions best when it has a well-structured team with clear roles and responsibilities. The team may include internal stakeholders, like IT and management, and external stakeholders, such as legal consultants or third-party security experts.
Each member of your incident response team should have a clearly defined role to prevent delays and confusion during an incident. Roles may include:
- Incident Manager: Oversees the incident response process and co-ordinates with other teams.
- Technical Lead: Directs containment, eradication, and recovery tasks.
- Communication Officer: Manages internal and external communications.
- Legal Advisor: Ensures compliance with legal obligations during and after an incident.
Designating these roles upfront helps the team respond more efficiently and cohesively during an incident.
Step 3: Establish incident categories and prioritisation
Incidents can range widely in scope and severity, from minor phishing attempts to full-blown data breaches. To streamline response efforts, you must categorise potential incidents and assign impact levels to each. Incident categories could include:
- Network attacks: Attempts to compromise network infrastructure, such as Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.
- Phishing and social engineering: Attacks targeting individuals for unauthorised access.
- Data breaches: Incidents where sensitive data is exposed or stolen.
Each category should have multiple impact levels (e.g., low, medium, high) based on criteria like the number of affected systems, potential data loss, and the severity of business impact. This prioritisation ensures critical incidents receive immediate attention, while lower-priority events are handled appropriately without over-allocating resources.
Step 4: Develop detection and notification protocols
Timely detection and reporting are crucial for an effective IRP. Make sure you implement security tools and monitoring systems that can detect unusual activities or potential threats. There’s a wide range of endpoint protection platforms, network monitoring tools, and intrusion detection systems available for business and enterprise organisations.
Once an incident is detected, a notification protocol outlines how and when incidents should be reported internally and externally.
- Internal reporting should be rapid, with team members knowing whom to notify immediately.
- External reporting may be required for regulatory compliance and could include notifying partners, customers, or the authorities depending on the type of incident.
Make sure you clearly define the people or parties to be notified, the method of notification, and the relevant timeframe.
Step 5: Outline incident containment and eradication steps
Containment and eradication are central to limiting an incident’s impact and preventing further damage. Document your procedures for both short-term and long-term containment and eradication.
- Short-term containment may involve disconnecting affected devices from the network or blocking malicious traffic.
- Long-term containment might include applying patches, implementing segmentation, or reconfiguring permissions.
- Eradication focuses on eliminating the incident’s root cause and could involve removing malware, resetting compromised credentials, or closing exploited vulnerabilities.
Both containment and eradication should be documented in detail, tailored to specific incident types, and tested to confirm that they are feasible and effective.
Step 6: Create recovery and remediation procedures
Once the incident is contained and eradicated, recovery efforts aim to return systems to regular operation safely and reliably. The recovery phase may involve restoring affected systems, verifying data integrity, and assessing system functionality. A critical part of this step is to monitor your systems for any indication that the incident may recur, ensuring any residual threats are eliminated.
Remediation actions may also include taking preventative steps, such as reinforcing security controls, updating policies, or providing additional employee training. Documentation is essential here, as lessons learned in recovery and remediation will help improve your IRP over time.
Step 7: Build a communication strategy
Communication during an incident is essential to inform all stakeholders, control potential reputational damage, and fulfil legal obligations. Your communication strategy should differentiate between internal communications, which provide regular updates to relevant staff, and external communications, which may include notifying customers, partners, regulatory bodies, and the media.
Effective communication strategies often use predefined templates and include guidelines for customising messaging based on the nature and impact of the incident. Designate a spokesperson from your communications or public relations team to ensure consistency and accuracy in your external messages.
Step 8: Plan for post-incident review and continuous improvement
Every incident provides a learning opportunity. The post-incident review process aims to evaluate the IRP’s performance, identify areas for improvement, and ensure that lessons are incorporated into the IRP for future incidents.
This step typically includes:
- Documentation: Detail the incident timeline, response actions, and decision points.
- Evaluation: Analyse what went well and what didn’t, identifying any gaps in response.
- Update procedures: Adjust protocols, tools, and policies to address any identified weaknesses.
A robust post-incident review process strengthens the IRP and demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvement, which is critical for fostering a proactive security culture and maintaining regulatory compliance.
Bonus tip! The success of any IRP is closely tied to the response team’s performance during high-pressure situations – and that’s why it’s important to cultivate the right mindset. If you and your teammates can maintain your composure, think objectively, and work in unison, then you’ll be ready when it matters most.
- Stay calm under pressure: Panic can lead to mistakes and misinterpretations during critical moments. Breathe, focus, and assess the situation calmly before you act. Rely on your IR training and processes to guide you.
- Stay objective and avoid assumptions: Jumping to conclusions or making assumptions can lead to missteps and wasted resources. Base your decisions on verified data; cross-check evidence; and don’t let personal biases influence your actions.
- Focus on collaboration, not isolation: Incident response is a team effort: isolating yourself or hoarding information can slow the overall response time and hinder your progress. Communicate openly, delegate tasks, and leverage others’ expertise if necessary.
With a comprehensive IRP and a teamwork mindset, your organisation will be better equipped to navigate security incidents. Download our checklist to guide you in creating your IRP.
