Becoming a victim of a cyber attack is an imminent reality for all companies
With punitive measures introduced by the EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and the NIS (Network and Information Systems) Regulations 2018, how an organisation responds to a cyber incident can often spell the difference between failure and success.
The speed at which you identify and mitigate such incidents makes a significant difference in controlling your risks, cost and exposure. Effective CIR management can reduce the risk of future incidents occurring, help you detect incidents at an earlier stage and develop a robust defence against attacks to potentially save your organisation millions.
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Why do you need incident response planning?
Cyber attacks and data breaches are inevitable, so the speed at which you react to a breach is critical. Cyber criminals only need to find one weakness to infiltrate your systems, so it is essential to be prepared when a breach occurs.
The current incident response climate in organisations demonstrates why CIR is not something you can afford to ignore:
days, the average number of time that a threat has undetected access in a network. (FireEye M-Trends 2018)
of organisations don't have a cyber incident response plan in place and are unprepared to respond to a cyber attack. (PwC Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2018)
for organisations to report data breaches/incidents under the GDPR and the NIS Regulations. The breach must be reported within 72 hours, or face heavy fines
the average cost for an organisation that has suffered a data breach. (Ponemon Institute’s 2018 Cost of a Data Breach Study: Global Overview)
Incident reporting requirements under the GDPR and NIS Directive
Under Article 32 of the GDPR, organisations are obligated to restore availability of and access to personal data in the event of a physical or technical breach.
Organisations in critical infrastructure also face these obligations under the NIS Directive, whereby OES (operators of essential services) and DSPs (digital service providers) are required to adopt incident response measures to ensure recovery following a disruptive incident.
Phase
1. Reconnaissance
- Identify target
- Look for vulnerabilities
Countermeasures
- Monitoring and logging
- Situational awareness
- Collaboration
Phase
2. Attack target
- Exploit vulnerabilities
- Defeat remaining controls
Countermeasures
- Architectural system design
- Standard controls (e.g. ISO 27001)
- Penetration testing
Phase
3. Achieve objectives
- Disruption of systems
- Extraction of data
- Manipulation of information
Countermeasures
- Cyber security incident response planning
- Business continuity and disaster recovery plans
- Cyber security insurance
Frameworks that outline and require incident response measures
Incident response planning is mandated as part of all major cyber security regimes either directly or indirectly. The following standards require incident response measures:
- ISO 27001, the international standard for an ISMS (information security management system)
- ISO 22301, the international standard for a BCMS (business continuity management system)
- PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)
UK government departments also have a responsibility to report cyber incidents under the terms laid out in the security policy framework issued by the Cabinet Office, effectively mandating a CIR for such organisations as well.