Most companies think about security incident response only when security incidents occur and never before. The way you prepare for a security incident will ensure how your network deals with it and how it is going to affect the operating of your organization. According to security researches, security breaches are on the rise with over 3500 breaches being reported in the last year. Such breaches end up costing a lot of money and time that can never be replaced by the organization.

Security incidents will always happen at times you don’t expect them to, and as such, it is imperative to be prepared for them at all times by offering incident response training to the employees in the organization. There are certain best practices to be followed which will aid in your cyber security teams’ response to cyber security incidents, practices that are followed by most big organizations.

1. Identify data which is important to the organization and secure it properly

Most organizations, be it small or large, generate a lot of data during the normal course of their operations, and store it either on-site or off-site in the cloud. But as is the case with most small and medium-sized organizations, the budget available for securing such data is often inadequate. If this is the scenario at your organization, it is imperative to develop a plan to respond to an incidence of data loss. Make sure that critical data is backed up securely with redundancy available by first taking stock of all the data present in the organization using an incident response tool.

2. Don’t complicate the plan – Keep it as simple as possible

Having complicated incident response plans will hinder the people in the organization responsible for its implementation during a security incident to do so in a quick manner. Instead of generalizing the response, it is better to be specific about the plan and add in steps that can be replicated by all of the employees in your company irrespective of their level in the organization.

Your plan should address the following areas:

• The responsibility for implementing the plan in case of an emergency must rest with designated people, and they must be made aware of their roles and responsibilities during such an incident. They must be reachable 24/7 because they are the first line of defense for the organization. But in the case of them not being reachable, you must have redundant resources ready to step in their place and take care of the situation.

• What is the data that needs to be protected and how do we assess that? Once assessed, what is the best way to store this data in a secure, redundant manner that can be easily restored in the event of a security incident.

• When should the organization involve the police and cyber agencies in the event of a security incident and who is responsible for doing so?

People in the organization must be aware of the incident response methodology of the organization and must have awareness of the policy governing the cyber security incident response, which details the best practices.