© 2020 Content Security Pty Ltd.

practice and preparation for when disaster strikes

Incident Response Plan & Playbooks

Planning effective Incident Response will lower the time between initial detection and the final recovery. Thus, preventing downtime, reducing impact and saving brand reputation.

Ensuring the right people and processes are in place to effectively respond to an incident and minimise damages

In the midst of crisis, your organisation needs structured, detailed guidance on how to swiftly contain, eradicate and recover from an incident

Preparation is key to ensuring incidents are quickly detected and moreover, that your response process is as effective as possible. The time elapsed between first detection of a breach and its containment significantly impacts the overall costs incurred. Therefore, if your organisation can reduce the time taken to identify and contain a data breach (with incident response playbooks and plans), you’re better positioned to minimise financial, reputational, operational and compliance-related consequences.

Content Security's Incident Response Plans and Playbooks help you 'train like you fight and fight like you train'

So, we’ve established the importance of Incident Response Plans and Playbooks, but where to begin with actually creating them? With so many types of cyber security incidents to protect against, creating a comprehensive IR plan might seem unfeasible alone. Luckily, Content Security can help by:

  • Analysing your current detection and response capability; 
  • Creating a tailored response plan, aligned to your unique business requirements ; and 
  • Providing you with a variety of playbooks with additional opportunities for testing. 
30%

Breaches responded to in less than 200 days have a cost saving of nearly 30%.

To elaborate, a breach with a lifecycle over 200 days cost around $4.87 million in 2021, vs. $3.61 million for a breach with a lifecycle of less than 200 days.

When did you last update your Incident Response Plan? Have you run through Playbooks lately?

IR plan and playbook testing continues to mitigate extensive breach costs, and the statistics show that testing is only proving to be more effective as the years go on

Breaches at organisations with neither an IR team nor plan testing cost $5.71m, while those at organisations with both capabilities cost $3.25m

This is a total cost gap of $2.46m or 54.9 per cent. These figures show a growing cost difference effectiveness of IR capabilities in just 2021. However, when we compare the numbers year-over-year, it’s clear that testing is only improving response processes and minimising costs even more. For example, the average cost difference in 2020 was only 42.1 percent, or $1.77m.

Taking an anticipatory, proactive stance is crucial to protecting against evolving threats

An IR plan is a documented, flexible strategy that helps facilitate an orderly and streamlined response when you need it

Ultimately, an IR plan is formal, systematic document outlining roles, accountability and general plans of action across the 6 stages of Incident Response:

  1. Preparation
  2. Identification
  3. Triage and Investigation
  4. Containment and Eradication
  5. Recovery
  6. Post-Incident Handling

This framework is not only crucial for IT security professionals, but for executives and staff alike, as they should acknowledge the importance of the IR plan and know where they fit into it. It allows for transparency and ensures there are records proving your organisation did everything it could to contain active threats and minimise damage to third parties.
incident response playbooks

With our expertly crafted Incident Response Playbooks, practice truly does make perfect

When properly implemented and tested, playbooks lessen the time between initial detection and final recovery, preventing business downtime and protecting your reputation

Just as in sports, incident response playbooks provide step by step, predetermined workflows on how to act in specific cyber security situations. These are created from a strategic standpoint, assisting your organisation with practical guidance for more successful, effective response.Our playbooks provide a high-level process of actions for a variety of incident types. For example:

Data Breaches

Internal System Compromises

Malicious Insiders

Malware and Ransomware

Fraudulent Websites

Plus More

incident response playbooks

Workshops, testing and guidance - how we support you now and into the future

Often times, a lack of proper testing of Incident Response Plans and Playbooks leads to panic and misunderstanding of roles, responsibilities, communication methods and actions.

As a result, they prove to be rarely followed when an incident occurs. That’s why in addition to providing plans and playbooks, our experts run through incident-based scenarios.

This includes table-top (TTX) and/or live-fire exercises (LFX) to ensure that your IR process will be triggered in a real-world incident. Moreover, these activities allow key players to understand their roles and responsibilities in the IR process, thus improving response actions undertaken and time taken to recovery.

When incidents occur, stress rises and poor decisions are made

IR skills might be available in-house, however, external experts can act rationally and without bias to give your leadership the right information to make better choices

We cover the industry spectrum end-to-end, meaning, we can assist you with preparing for any type of cyber security incident and beyond

This includes data breaches, malware outbreaks, internal frauds and system
misuse, cloud compromises, phishing, sexual harassment or other industrial relation disputes involving information systems.

Moreover, our services extend beyond just critical incident response. We specialise in Security Assurance Services, Governance, Risk and Compliance, and Enterprise Services, partnering with Strategic Vendors to protect your business.

For more information please contact our cybersecurity professionals today.