Designing a Data Security Incident Response Plan
Companies of all sizes face data security threats, and unfortunately sometimes it becomes necessary to initiate your data security incident response plan. Your response to a security breach is critical to shutting it down and minimizing the impact. According to IBM Global Services, an effective response plan balances thoroughness with usability and is flexible and easily deployed. IBM security experts cite these key things to avoid when crafting a data security incident response plan:
- Making the response plan too complex. As with any IT process especially one that will be executed under pressure and distress, it is important that your data security incident response plan is clear and actionable
- Relying on or overloading tasks to one key person. Who doesn’t have that one person on the team that we turn to for just about everything? When a data security incident occurs it is unwise to assume that person will be present, available and able to handle all the tasks
- Forgetting that tasks need to run in parallel. When a security breach occurs, response speed matters. Incident response plans need to be designed so tasks can run parallel for quicker resolution not one-by-one
- Not including communications planning. While there will be plenty of IT tasks to complete, someone will need to keep the lines of communication open and will need to know the who, what, where and when for communicating
- Prioritizing what is easy to fix first versus what is critical. When a big problem arises it is only natural to look at the easy tasks to complete as quick-wins, but in a data security incident IT must focus first on the critical task that resolves the issue and protects or restores the most data
Want to dive deeper? Read the full IBM White Paper or contact us to discuss your current data security solution, incident response planning and needs.
