Security incidents represent a grave menace to organizations worldwide, transcending size or industry. These incidents, spanning from sophisticated cyberattacks to inadvertent human errors, can inflict severe repercussions on operations, reputation, and data integrity. Effective incident management stands as a pivotal measure to mitigate potential harm and ensure business continuity. This necessitates the establishment of robust processes, policies, and procedures to promptly detect, report, assess, and respond to incidents.
In our first publication within the serie of Security Incident Handling,
our emphasis is placed on the aspect of incident declaration.
In the context of the NIST framework, specifically NIST SP 800–61 Rev. 2 (Computer Security Incident Handling), we spotlight a critical phase: Incident Preparation.
This phase delineates four fundamental steps in incident handling:
Our primary focus revolves around the initial step of incident preparation which is the incident declaration.
Herein lies the imperative to designate a communication channel for teams; in our scenario, incident declaration occurs via professional email.
The incident declaration takes the form of a structured document, encapsulating key information:
1. Analyst Details:
- Analyst’s Name: [Space to fill]
- Structure: [Space to fill] (The department, sector, or team to which the analyst belongs)
- Date and Time of Declaration: [Space to fill] (Date and time when the incident is declared)
2. Incident Details:
- Incident ID: [Space to fill] (A unique identifier for the incident)
- Date and Time of Detection: [Space to fill] (When the incident was first detected)
- Severity Level: [Space to fill] (The severity of the incident: low, medium, high, critical)
- List of Affected Systems, Applications, or Data: [Space to fill]
- IP Addresses, Hostnames, or Other Identifiers of Affected Assets: [Space to fill]
- Type of Incident: [Space to fill] (e.g., malware infection, unauthorized access, data breach…)
- Attack Vector: [Space to fill] (How the incident occurred: phishing, brute force…)
- Description: [Space to fill] (A brief description of the incident, including affected systems or assets)
3. Impact of the Incident:
- Operational Impact: [Space to fill] (How the incident affects normal business operations)
- Data Impact: [Space to fill] (What data, if any, has been compromised or affected)
4. Incident Response Actions:
- Response Team: [Space to fill] (Names or roles of individuals responsible for responding to the incident)
- Structure: [Space to fill]
- Actions Taken: [Space to fill] (Steps taken to contain, mitigate, or remediate the incident)
Below is the proposed form:
If you have any proposals or contributions, please feel free to participate. Your input is highly valued and welcomed 🤗!
