What Does It Contain and Do for Your Organisation?
This template provides a complete set of procedures to respond to various cyber security incidents, from data spills and malware infections to social engineering and unauthorised access. It aligns with leading industry standards ISO2700:2022, ensuring best practices. Key elements include:
- Clear Roles and Responsibilities: Defining who does what during an incident, including the Incident Response Team (IRT) structure.
- Structured Communication Protocols: Outlining internal and external communication strategies to keep stakeholders informed and manage public perception.
- A Detailed Incident Response Process: Guiding your organisation through the critical phases of preparation, detection and analysis, containment, eradication, and recovery, and post-incident activities.
- Comprehensive Documentation: Providing templates for incident reporting, registers, and chain of custody forms to ensure thorough record-keeping for analysis and potential legal proceedings.
- Prioritisation Framework: Enabling efficient allocation of resources by categorising incidents based on functional impact, information impact, and recoverability.
- Evidence Handling Guidelines: Ensuring that evidence is collected and preserved according to legal requirements.
- Continuous Improvement Mechanisms: Including lessons-learned meetings, and regular plan reviews to adapt to evolving threats and improve future responses.
Ultimately, this plan empowers you to understand the extent and source of an incident, protect sensitive data and systems, recover efficiently, prevent recurrence, support legal investigations, and report to the appropriate authorities, thereby safeguarding your operations, reputation, and profitability.
How to Use it:
This template is designed to be a living document. Begin by customising all instances of “{XXXX}” with your organisation’s name. Review each section thoroughly, adapting the examples, roles, and procedures to match your specific operational environment, systems, and personnel. Pay close attention to:
- Roles and Responsibilities: Clearly define individuals for each role in Table 1 and populate ‘Appendix B. Incident Response Team’ and ’Appendix I. Incident Response Contact List’.
- Communication Protocols: Tailor the internal and external communication tables (Table 2 and Table 3) and review the communication templates in ‘Appendix F’ and ‘Appendix G’.
- Incident Playbooks: Develop specific incident response playbooks for common scenarios relevant to your organisation, as referenced in ‘Appendix D’.
- Testing and Training: Implement the ‘Incident Response Plan Testing’ schedule and ensure regular training for your IRT and general security awareness for all employees.
- Documentation: Utilise the provided ‘Appendix E. Incident Register’ and ‘Appendix E. Incident Reporting Form’ for consistent incident documentation.
Regularly review and update this plan (at least annually) to reflect changes in your organisation’s environment, technology, and the cyber threat landscape. By actively engaging with and customising this template, you can build a resilient and effective defence against cyber security challenges.
