IT disaster recovery is one of the business continuity subsets. It specifically focuses on the technology after the disaster of how to get IT back into operation using backup facilities. There are different types of backup facilities: Hot sites, cold sites, and site sharing with continuous data protection. Each type has its pros and cons. The hot site provides power, HVAC, and computers that are ready to add data to the site at a high cost. Cold sites have no computer equipment but less expensive. Select a backup site location are also important. It needs to ensure the backup site would not be shut down at the same time with the same or different disaster and available to use in a short period. A continuous data protection plan is necessary. It allows to respond and recover the disaster quickly.
Disaster recovery and incident response have become a necessity in today’s technology-driven business world . Large amounts of consumer information are being fed into corporate information systems with a view to protecting their private and financial data. The chapters in this book illustrate the importance of an organization’s need for an effective disaster recovery and contingency plan. A knowledge base is built by understanding the statistical and practical impact of disaster recovery and contingency plans.
The core function of a disaster recovery plan is to maintain the functionality of business processes in the event of a catastrophic event. In order for a disaster recovery plan to be effective, an organization must plan for all types of disasters. Disasters can manifest as cyberattacks, natural disasters, or technology/hardware disasters. Organizations need to plan for both technology and hardware disasters. This examination will cover both cyberattacks and natural disasters and will hopefully answer why it is necessary to plan for these types of events separately.
In accident and disaster response, data backup and recovery play a crucial role. In case of data loss, damage, or system crash, backup data can be quickly restored to ensure service continuity and data integrity. In addition, backup data can be used for accident investigation and analysis to help organizations understand the causes of accidents and prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Incident and disaster response is a series of actions and measures taken by an organization in the face of an unexpected event, incident or disaster to protect personnel, reduce property damage, quickly restore business operations, and ensure data integrity and availability. It mainly includes the following response strategies and steps: (1) Developing a disaster recovery plan (DRP) (2) Regular testing of the DRP (3) Backup and recovery strategy (4) Business continuity management (BCM) (5) Emergency response plan (6) Compliance and legal requirements (7) Technical preparation and resource deployment (8) Training and awareness raising.
A business continuity plan, or BCP, specifies how a company plans to restore or maintain core business operations and processes in the event of a disaster. The BCP plan specifies what business steps will be taken, not just what technical actions need to be taken to get the business back to normal. Some of the principles of business continuity management are: protect people first – including making evacuation plans and drills and communicating – to try to compensate for inevitable breakdowns. The BCP should also be tested frequently to ensure that the scope of the disaster takes into account all operations and processes. The test plan also ensures that the BCP plan remains valid, up-to-date, and efficient for current business practices. As business conditions change and sometimes people’s roles or positions change, it is important to test and update the BCP plan frequently according to the needs of the organization.
Incident and disaster response refers to the process of preparing for, detecting, responding to, and recovering from security incidents and disasters that affect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of an organization’s information assets. Effective incident and disaster response capabilities are essential for minimizing the impact of security breaches, maintaining business continuity, and safeguarding the organization’s reputation and trust.
IT disaster recovery, a subset of business continuity, focuses on restoring IT operations post-disaster through backup facilities. Various backup facilities exist, including hot sites, cold sites, and site sharing with continuous data protection. Each type has its advantages and disadvantages, with hot sites offering immediate resources but at a higher cost and cold sites being less expensive but lacking computer equipment. Location selection is crucial, ensuring the backup site remains operational during disasters and is quickly accessible.
In accident and disaster response, data backup and recovery are essential. Backup data can restore services and maintain data integrity in case of loss, damage, or system crash. Additionally, it’s invaluable for accident investigation and analysis, helping organizations identify causes and prevent future occurrences.
Integrating IT disaster recovery with data backup and recovery strategies is vital for organizations. This combination ensures quick response and recovery, minimizing downtime and maintaining business continuity. By investing in appropriate backup facilities and planning, companies can mitigate the risks associated with data loss and disasters, ensuring their long-term success.
In the incident response process, there are 3 critical stages: detection, analysis and escalation. Detection refers to when responders/security personnel discover an incident has occurred. This can be due to the usage of an IDS, or even a simple technical failure (i.e. an employees inability to access important work files). Next, analysis refers to the security personnel’s ability to categorize the incident/occurrence which was detected. This is the stage when a group such as a SOC (security operations center) filters out the false alarms from true incidents and malicious/unauthorized behavior. This is done by reading through log files. Lastly, escalation is when the incident is elevated to the organization’s CSIRT and other business continuity stakeholders.
Having an incident response plan could reduce the number of successful cyber-attacks on the companies’ network. Every incident has a different level of severity. There are four different types of severities covered within this week’s reading: false alarms, minor incidents, major incident, and disasters. False alarms are when a certain event has been reported as an incident despite being a normal network activity. Minor incident is the type of incident that can be resolved by the on-duty officers such removing a virus form the affected computers and related incidents. Major incident is when the companies need to on board a different firm to assist them with resolving the incident. The example of the disaster is any types of environmental threat such as fire or floods.
One of the parts I have learned from Chapter 10 Incident and Disaster Response is IT Disaster Recovery. IT disaster recovery is one of the business continuity subsets. It specifically focuses on the technology after the disaster of how to get IT back into operation using backup facilities. There are different types of backup facilities: Hot sites, cold sites, and site sharing with continuous data protection. Each type has its pros and cons. The hot site provides power, HVAC, and computers that are ready to add data to the site at a high cost. Cold sites have no computer equipment but less expensive. Select a backup site location are also important. It needs to ensure the backup site would not be shut down at the same time with the same or different disaster and available to use in a short period. A continuous data protection plan is necessary.
No matter how much security is implemented in an organization’s network or applications there is always the possibility of an incident of occurring. Incidents range in severity from false alarms, minor incidents, major incidents, and disasters. The last two severities have the capability of interrupting core business functionality which can result in financial loss, so organizations should have continuity and/or disaster recovery plans in place to help quickly respond to such incidents. It is important to have response plans in place and practice those plans with rehearsal to understand if there are any flaws. It will also give people experience for when a real incident occurs and hopefully result in less human error during such a stressful situation.
This chapter told about the importance of establishing and implementing an information security incident and disaster response plan. A response plan can help organizations take swift action in the face of security incidents or disasters, reducing risks such as data breaches, system outages, and financial losses, thereby minimizing potential damages.
In the incident response process, there are 3 critical stages: detection, analysis and escalation. Detection refers to when responders/security personnel discover an incident has occurred. This can be due to the usage of an IDS, or even a simple technical failure. Next, analysis refers to the security personnel’s ability to categorize the incident/occurrence which was detected. This is the stage when a group such as a SOC (security operations center) filters out the false alarms from true incidents and malicious/unauthorized behavior. This is done by reading through log files. Lastly, escalation is when the incident is elevated to the organization’s CSIRT and other business continuity stakeholders.
Having an incident response plan could reduce the number of successful cyber-attacks on the companies’ network. Every incident has a different level of severity. There are four different types of severities covered within this week’s reading: false alarms, minor incidents, major incident, and disasters. False alarms are when a certain event has been reported as an incident despite being a normal network activity. Minor incident is the type of incident that can be resolved by the on-duty officers such removing a virus form the affected computers and related incidents. Major incident is when the companies need to on board a different firm to assist them with resolving the incident. The example of the disaster is any types of environmental threat such as fire or floods.
Incident and disaster response are crucial components of cybersecurity that aim to minimize the impact of security incidents and disasters on an organization’s operations and data.
Both incident and disaster response are critical for ensuring business continuity and minimizing the impact of security incidents and disasters on an organization. By having well-developed response plans in place, organizations can respond quickly and effectively to incidents and disasters, reducing downtime and mitigating financial and reputational damage.
In this chapter, I learned why some companies choose not to prosecute attackers when faced with an organizational attack, and the reasons behind this are truly thought-provoking. One notable reason is the high cost and effort required to prosecute and remediate a case. A lengthy investigation not only involves huge attorney fees, but also requires the company to dedicate a lot of resources. This has led some companies to favor resolving issues internally to avoid additional financial burdens.
In addition, the probability of success in these cases becomes a factor for companies to consider. The attacker may be from overseas, or simply a minor child whose punishment may be very limited. The prosecution process itself is also a highly publicized matter, which may lead to public discontent and criticism once the company’s losses are made public. This publicity may also damage the company’s reputation and customer loyalty, further exacerbating its losses.
While we would expect that in an ideal world, criminals would be duly punished, the reality is often more complex. Prosecuting these attackers can involve numerous legal and technical difficulties, resulting in some criminals escaping punishment and becoming a potential threat to others. As a result, companies facing such situations need to weigh various factors and choose the most appropriate response strategy to ensure the security of their organization.
The four-level incident severity scale false alarms, minor incidents that can be handled by the on-duty IT staff, major incidents that call for the firm’s CSIRT to meet is one of the most important things I took away from this chapter. Other categories include disasters that affect IT alone or endanger the firm’s business continuity as a whole. Accuracy and rapidity are essential for any catastrophe or tragedy. They need a lot of preparation and practice. Organizations must carefully prepare for how they will react to significant events and calamities. There is no plan that fits a situation exactly. But improvising within a strategy is significantly more productive than improvising unplanned.
Disaster recovery and incident response have become a necessity in today’s technology-driven business world. A large amount of consumer information is entered into the information of enterprises, which requires special attention. This chapter explores the importance of organizations needing effective disaster recovery and emergency planning. The core function of a disaster recovery plan is to keep business processes running in the event of a catastrophic event. This chapter also classifies incident severity into four threat levels: false alarm, minor incident, major incident, and disaster. In IDS, many suspicious activities turn out to be false positives, wasting a lot of security time. Minor incidents can be handled by on-duty personnel. Major incidents have too much impact on the IT on duty, so leave it to the staff to deal with. The more adequate your disaster recovery plan is, the more you can reduce the cost of a disaster. The more prepared an organization is, the less damage it will incur in the event of a disaster.
Incident and disaster response refer to the processes and procedures organizations follow to identify, respond to, and recover from security incidents or disasters that may impact their information systems, data, or business operations. A well-planned incident and disaster response plan can help minimize the impact of these events and speed up recovery time.
Here are key components of incident and disaster response:
Incident Response:
Incident Identification: The first step is to identify and recognize any security incident, which could range from a simple malware infection to a complex data breach.
Incident Classification: Classify the incident based on severity, impact, and urgency.
Incident Containment: Isolate the affected systems to prevent further spread of the incident.
Eradication and Recovery: Remove the incident’s root cause and restore systems to normal operations.
Post-Incident Analysis: Conduct a thorough analysis to understand the incident’s root cause, identify any gaps in security, and improve incident response procedures.
Disaster Recovery:
Disaster Prevention: Take proactive measures to minimize the likelihood of disasters, such as regular backups, redundancy, and resilience planning.
Disaster Identification: Identify a disaster situation, which could be caused by natural disasters, hardware failures, or other catastrophic events.
Disaster Declaration: Declare a disaster when the situation requires an organized response to recover critical operations.
Recovery Planning: Activate the disaster recovery plan, which should include predefined procedures for restoring data, systems, and critical business processes.
Recovery Execution: Implement the recovery plan to restore services and minimize downtime.
Post-Disaster Analysis: Analyze the disaster’s impact, identify lessons learned, and make necessary improvements to the disaster recovery plan.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Identify key personnel and teams responsible for incident and disaster response, such as incident responders, disaster recovery teams, and management.
Ensure that these teams are trained and prepared to handle incidents and disasters effectively.
Communication and Coordination:
Establish clear communication channels and protocols to ensure timely and effective communication between response teams, management, and other stakeholders.
Coordinate the response efforts to ensure that resources are allocated efficiently and the recovery process is smooth.
Testing and Maintenance:
Regularly test the incident and disaster response plans to identify any gaps or issues.
Maintain and update the plans as necessary to reflect changes in the organization’s infrastructure, business processes, or threats.
By having a robust incident and disaster response plan, organizations can minimize the impact of security incidents and disasters, recover quickly, and maintain business continuity.
Incident and disaster response is a series of actions and measures taken by an organization in the face of an unexpected event, incident or disaster to protect personnel, reduce property damage, quickly restore business operations, and ensure data integrity and availability. It mainly includes the following response strategies and steps: (1) Developing a disaster recovery plan (DRP) (2) Regular testing of the DRP (3) Backup and recovery strategy (4) Business continuity management (BCM) (5) Emergency response plan (6) Compliance and legal requirements (7) Technical preparation and resource deployment (8) Training and awareness raising.No matter how much security is implemented in an organization’s network or applications there is always the possibility of an incident of occurring. Incidents range in severity from false alarms, minor incidents, major incidents, and disasters. The last two severities have the capability of interrupting core business functionality which can result in financial loss, so organizations should have continuity and/or disaster recovery plans in place to help quickly respond to such incidents.
A key takeaway I learned from this chapter is about containment, how to stop the damage. There are a few main steps to take, first is disconnection. Disconnection from the server from the LAN and the entire system’s connection to the internet stops intrusions and prevents the server from the malicious users. Disconnection helps the attacker by making the server completely unavailable. Black-holing the attacker is a way of cutting off the attacker’s IP address, dropping all future connections to that IP address automatically. However, this alerts the attacker that they’ve been discovered and has them come back with a different IP address and approach. The next practice is to continue collecting as much data about the malicious attackers as possible if the damage is not too severe yet. After this would be containment.
Disaster recovery planning revolves around how to contain the chaos caused by an event and return to normal working order after an organisation’s normal operations have been disrupted. Disaster recovery plans are almost always implemented when tensions are high and minds may not be as calm as they could be. Any event that stops, prevents or interrupts an organisation from performing its work is considered a disaster. Once IT is unable to support mission-critical processes, the restoration and recovery process needs to be managed through a DRP.
The DRP is a technical complement to business-oriented BCP exercises. It includes
technical controls to stop disruptions and facilitate service restoration as soon as possible after an outage occurs.
Together, the DRP guides the actions of emergency responders until the ultimate goal is achieved, which is to return the primary operating facility to full operational capability.
The BCP plan defines the business steps to be taken as the business returns to normal. Principles of business continuity management include prioritizing personnel safety, developing evacuation plans, conducting drills, and strengthening communication to minimize potential failure losses. To ensure that the disaster impact covers all operations and processes, the BCP plan shall conduct regular tests to ensure its effectiveness, timeliness and efficiency for current business practices. As the business environment changes, and the personnel roles or positions are adjusted, the organization should regularly test and update the BCP plan as required.
The Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a proactive network security tool that continuously monitors network transmissions in real-time. When it detects suspicious activity, it promptly alerts the system or initiates responsive measures. Unlike other network security components, the IDS’s distinctiveness lies in its proactive approach to safeguarding.
Essentially, the IDS functions as a comprehensive computer monitoring system, constantly scanning for any abnormalities and promptly issuing warnings when they arise. Depending on the type of information sources and detection techniques employed, IDS can be categorized into various types. For instance, based on information sources, IDS can be either host-based or network-based. In terms of detection methods, it can employ either anomaly-based intrusion detection or misuse-based intrusion detection.
Contrary to firewalls, the IDS operates independently as a monitoring device, requiring no direct connection to any network link. This allows it to function seamlessly, even without network traffic flowing through it.
The main difference between event response and disaster recovery principles lies in their response focus.
Disaster recovery plans can reduce the risks and damages caused by unexpected disasters such as weather events, equipment damage, or human errors that have a negative impact on business.
Event response processing can reduce the risk of active data leakage. Event response plans ensure that in the event of a security vulnerability, appropriate personnel and programs are in place to effectively handle network security incidents and provide targeted responses to contain and eliminate threats.
Incident and Disaster Response refers to the prompt and effective actions taken to handle and respond to system failures, security incidents, natural disasters, or other emergency situations, in order to minimize potential losses and restore normal operations.
Incident and Disaster Response is a plan and process developed by organizations to protect their core business and critical resources. Timely response and appropriate actions are crucial in mitigating the impact on the organization when incidents or disasters occur. Here are the key aspects of incident and disaster response:
1. Emergency Plan: A pre-established emergency plan includes detailed steps and operational guidelines to address various potential emergencies. The emergency plan should clearly define responsibilities and authorities, and include emergency contact information for all relevant parties.
2. Incident Response: When security incidents or system failures occur, organizations should respond promptly, taking appropriate measures to control and mitigate the impact, prevent further harm, and protect critical data and resources. An incident response team should be designated and trained to promptly identify, investigate, and respond to various security incidents.
3. Disaster Recovery: In the event of natural disasters, hardware failures, system crashes, etc., a disaster recovery plan should ensure that businesses can resume normal operations in the shortest time possible and minimize the impact of business interruptions on the organization. The plan should include strategies for backing up and restoring data, the location of backup storage, and reliability testing of backup data.
4. Communication and Collaboration: Effective communication and collaboration are critical during emergencies. Maintaining communication with employees, customers, partners, and relevant stakeholders, providing accurate and timely information, can help alleviate panic, convey situational updates, and facilitate decision-making and actions.
5. Post-Incident Review and Improvement: Conducting an evaluation and analysis of the entire response process is crucial after incidents and disasters. By learning from experiences, identifying issues and errors, and implementing necessary improvements, organizations can enhance their response capabilities and minimize the impact of similar incidents in the future.
This chapter explores in detail how to effectively respond, recover, and reduce losses in the event of a cybersecurity incident or catastrophic failure. This chapter introduces the complete process of incident response in detail, including incident identification, evaluation, response, recovery and post-processing. These steps are designed to ensure that organizations are able to respond quickly and effectively when faced with security incidents.
Organizations need to have detailed emergency and disaster recovery plans in place and rehearse and update them regularly. In addition, organizations need to enhance training and awareness of employees to ensure that they can respond quickly and effectively in the event of a security incident or disaster. By understanding and implementing these strategies and approaches, organizations can more effectively respond to cybersecurity challenges and catastrophic failures, ensuring business continuity and data integrity.
According to my understanding, There is a difference between Incident Response and Disaster Recovery. An incident response plan is a proactive plan that helps you prepare for a cybersecurity breach. Incident response plans are important to any organization’s cyber security strategy. It’s a set of policies and procedures that outline what steps need to be taken in case of a cyberattack and how the organization plan to respond to an attack if its networks become compromised. The goal of an incident response plan is to ensure that your business can respond quickly and efficiently when there’s been a breach or loss of data. It also helps you identify what went wrong and how you can prevent it from happening again. On the other side, a disaster recovery plan means when your business is hit by a cyber-attack, you need to be prepared to get back up and running as quickly as possible. A disaster recovery plan is more specific as it focuses on restoring the business processes that an event or disaster has disrupted. It can also be used to prepare for future disasters by documenting existing processes and procedures followed in case of such an event so that they don’t need to be reinvented again if faced with another similar situation in the future.
Through this chapter I learned about business continuity plans as well as DRPs.
A business continuity plan outlines how the business will continue to operate during unplanned service interruptions or how the company plans to maintain or restore core business operations in the event of events such as natural disasters, fires, and cyberterrorism.A BCP is an important part of an organization’s risk management strategy, which involves defining all the risks that could affect the company’s operations.IT Disaster Recovery (IT DRP) specifies how the company will get IT disaster recovery (IT DRP) specifies how a company gets its IT back up and running, especially in terms of technology.IT DRP is critical to the success of business continuity recovery. Disasters can include natural events such as earthquakes or hurricanes, equipment failures, cyberattacks, and more. With IT DRP, organizations can respond quickly to disasters and take immediate action to minimize losses and resume operations as quickly as possible.
IT disaster recovery is one of the business continuity subsets. It specifically focuses on the technology after the disaster of how to get IT back into operation using backup facilities. There are different types of backup facilities: Hot sites, cold sites, and site sharing with continuous data protection. Each type has its pros and cons. The hot site provides power, HVAC, and computers that are ready to add data to the site at a high cost. Cold sites have no computer equipment but less expensive. Select a backup site location are also important. It needs to ensure the backup site would not be shut down at the same time with the same or different disaster and available to use in a short period. A continuous data protection plan is necessary. It allows to respond and recover the disaster quickly.
Disaster recovery and incident response have become a necessity in today’s technology-driven business world . Large amounts of consumer information are being fed into corporate information systems with a view to protecting their private and financial data. The chapters in this book illustrate the importance of an organization’s need for an effective disaster recovery and contingency plan. A knowledge base is built by understanding the statistical and practical impact of disaster recovery and contingency plans.
The core function of a disaster recovery plan is to maintain the functionality of business processes in the event of a catastrophic event. In order for a disaster recovery plan to be effective, an organization must plan for all types of disasters. Disasters can manifest as cyberattacks, natural disasters, or technology/hardware disasters. Organizations need to plan for both technology and hardware disasters. This examination will cover both cyberattacks and natural disasters and will hopefully answer why it is necessary to plan for these types of events separately.
In accident and disaster response, data backup and recovery play a crucial role. In case of data loss, damage, or system crash, backup data can be quickly restored to ensure service continuity and data integrity. In addition, backup data can be used for accident investigation and analysis to help organizations understand the causes of accidents and prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Incident and disaster response is a series of actions and measures taken by an organization in the face of an unexpected event, incident or disaster to protect personnel, reduce property damage, quickly restore business operations, and ensure data integrity and availability. It mainly includes the following response strategies and steps: (1) Developing a disaster recovery plan (DRP) (2) Regular testing of the DRP (3) Backup and recovery strategy (4) Business continuity management (BCM) (5) Emergency response plan (6) Compliance and legal requirements (7) Technical preparation and resource deployment (8) Training and awareness raising.
A business continuity plan, or BCP, specifies how a company plans to restore or maintain core business operations and processes in the event of a disaster. The BCP plan specifies what business steps will be taken, not just what technical actions need to be taken to get the business back to normal. Some of the principles of business continuity management are: protect people first – including making evacuation plans and drills and communicating – to try to compensate for inevitable breakdowns. The BCP should also be tested frequently to ensure that the scope of the disaster takes into account all operations and processes. The test plan also ensures that the BCP plan remains valid, up-to-date, and efficient for current business practices. As business conditions change and sometimes people’s roles or positions change, it is important to test and update the BCP plan frequently according to the needs of the organization.
Incident and disaster response refers to the process of preparing for, detecting, responding to, and recovering from security incidents and disasters that affect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of an organization’s information assets. Effective incident and disaster response capabilities are essential for minimizing the impact of security breaches, maintaining business continuity, and safeguarding the organization’s reputation and trust.
IT disaster recovery, a subset of business continuity, focuses on restoring IT operations post-disaster through backup facilities. Various backup facilities exist, including hot sites, cold sites, and site sharing with continuous data protection. Each type has its advantages and disadvantages, with hot sites offering immediate resources but at a higher cost and cold sites being less expensive but lacking computer equipment. Location selection is crucial, ensuring the backup site remains operational during disasters and is quickly accessible.
In accident and disaster response, data backup and recovery are essential. Backup data can restore services and maintain data integrity in case of loss, damage, or system crash. Additionally, it’s invaluable for accident investigation and analysis, helping organizations identify causes and prevent future occurrences.
Integrating IT disaster recovery with data backup and recovery strategies is vital for organizations. This combination ensures quick response and recovery, minimizing downtime and maintaining business continuity. By investing in appropriate backup facilities and planning, companies can mitigate the risks associated with data loss and disasters, ensuring their long-term success.
In the incident response process, there are 3 critical stages: detection, analysis and escalation. Detection refers to when responders/security personnel discover an incident has occurred. This can be due to the usage of an IDS, or even a simple technical failure (i.e. an employees inability to access important work files). Next, analysis refers to the security personnel’s ability to categorize the incident/occurrence which was detected. This is the stage when a group such as a SOC (security operations center) filters out the false alarms from true incidents and malicious/unauthorized behavior. This is done by reading through log files. Lastly, escalation is when the incident is elevated to the organization’s CSIRT and other business continuity stakeholders.
Having an incident response plan could reduce the number of successful cyber-attacks on the companies’ network. Every incident has a different level of severity. There are four different types of severities covered within this week’s reading: false alarms, minor incidents, major incident, and disasters. False alarms are when a certain event has been reported as an incident despite being a normal network activity. Minor incident is the type of incident that can be resolved by the on-duty officers such removing a virus form the affected computers and related incidents. Major incident is when the companies need to on board a different firm to assist them with resolving the incident. The example of the disaster is any types of environmental threat such as fire or floods.
One of the parts I have learned from Chapter 10 Incident and Disaster Response is IT Disaster Recovery. IT disaster recovery is one of the business continuity subsets. It specifically focuses on the technology after the disaster of how to get IT back into operation using backup facilities. There are different types of backup facilities: Hot sites, cold sites, and site sharing with continuous data protection. Each type has its pros and cons. The hot site provides power, HVAC, and computers that are ready to add data to the site at a high cost. Cold sites have no computer equipment but less expensive. Select a backup site location are also important. It needs to ensure the backup site would not be shut down at the same time with the same or different disaster and available to use in a short period. A continuous data protection plan is necessary.
No matter how much security is implemented in an organization’s network or applications there is always the possibility of an incident of occurring. Incidents range in severity from false alarms, minor incidents, major incidents, and disasters. The last two severities have the capability of interrupting core business functionality which can result in financial loss, so organizations should have continuity and/or disaster recovery plans in place to help quickly respond to such incidents. It is important to have response plans in place and practice those plans with rehearsal to understand if there are any flaws. It will also give people experience for when a real incident occurs and hopefully result in less human error during such a stressful situation.
This chapter told about the importance of establishing and implementing an information security incident and disaster response plan. A response plan can help organizations take swift action in the face of security incidents or disasters, reducing risks such as data breaches, system outages, and financial losses, thereby minimizing potential damages.
In the incident response process, there are 3 critical stages: detection, analysis and escalation. Detection refers to when responders/security personnel discover an incident has occurred. This can be due to the usage of an IDS, or even a simple technical failure. Next, analysis refers to the security personnel’s ability to categorize the incident/occurrence which was detected. This is the stage when a group such as a SOC (security operations center) filters out the false alarms from true incidents and malicious/unauthorized behavior. This is done by reading through log files. Lastly, escalation is when the incident is elevated to the organization’s CSIRT and other business continuity stakeholders.
Having an incident response plan could reduce the number of successful cyber-attacks on the companies’ network. Every incident has a different level of severity. There are four different types of severities covered within this week’s reading: false alarms, minor incidents, major incident, and disasters. False alarms are when a certain event has been reported as an incident despite being a normal network activity. Minor incident is the type of incident that can be resolved by the on-duty officers such removing a virus form the affected computers and related incidents. Major incident is when the companies need to on board a different firm to assist them with resolving the incident. The example of the disaster is any types of environmental threat such as fire or floods.
Incident and disaster response are crucial components of cybersecurity that aim to minimize the impact of security incidents and disasters on an organization’s operations and data.
Both incident and disaster response are critical for ensuring business continuity and minimizing the impact of security incidents and disasters on an organization. By having well-developed response plans in place, organizations can respond quickly and effectively to incidents and disasters, reducing downtime and mitigating financial and reputational damage.
In this chapter, I learned why some companies choose not to prosecute attackers when faced with an organizational attack, and the reasons behind this are truly thought-provoking. One notable reason is the high cost and effort required to prosecute and remediate a case. A lengthy investigation not only involves huge attorney fees, but also requires the company to dedicate a lot of resources. This has led some companies to favor resolving issues internally to avoid additional financial burdens.
In addition, the probability of success in these cases becomes a factor for companies to consider. The attacker may be from overseas, or simply a minor child whose punishment may be very limited. The prosecution process itself is also a highly publicized matter, which may lead to public discontent and criticism once the company’s losses are made public. This publicity may also damage the company’s reputation and customer loyalty, further exacerbating its losses.
While we would expect that in an ideal world, criminals would be duly punished, the reality is often more complex. Prosecuting these attackers can involve numerous legal and technical difficulties, resulting in some criminals escaping punishment and becoming a potential threat to others. As a result, companies facing such situations need to weigh various factors and choose the most appropriate response strategy to ensure the security of their organization.
The four-level incident severity scale false alarms, minor incidents that can be handled by the on-duty IT staff, major incidents that call for the firm’s CSIRT to meet is one of the most important things I took away from this chapter. Other categories include disasters that affect IT alone or endanger the firm’s business continuity as a whole. Accuracy and rapidity are essential for any catastrophe or tragedy. They need a lot of preparation and practice. Organizations must carefully prepare for how they will react to significant events and calamities. There is no plan that fits a situation exactly. But improvising within a strategy is significantly more productive than improvising unplanned.
Disaster recovery and incident response have become a necessity in today’s technology-driven business world. A large amount of consumer information is entered into the information of enterprises, which requires special attention. This chapter explores the importance of organizations needing effective disaster recovery and emergency planning. The core function of a disaster recovery plan is to keep business processes running in the event of a catastrophic event. This chapter also classifies incident severity into four threat levels: false alarm, minor incident, major incident, and disaster. In IDS, many suspicious activities turn out to be false positives, wasting a lot of security time. Minor incidents can be handled by on-duty personnel. Major incidents have too much impact on the IT on duty, so leave it to the staff to deal with. The more adequate your disaster recovery plan is, the more you can reduce the cost of a disaster. The more prepared an organization is, the less damage it will incur in the event of a disaster.
Incident and disaster response refer to the processes and procedures organizations follow to identify, respond to, and recover from security incidents or disasters that may impact their information systems, data, or business operations. A well-planned incident and disaster response plan can help minimize the impact of these events and speed up recovery time.
Here are key components of incident and disaster response:
Incident Response:
Incident Identification: The first step is to identify and recognize any security incident, which could range from a simple malware infection to a complex data breach.
Incident Classification: Classify the incident based on severity, impact, and urgency.
Incident Containment: Isolate the affected systems to prevent further spread of the incident.
Eradication and Recovery: Remove the incident’s root cause and restore systems to normal operations.
Post-Incident Analysis: Conduct a thorough analysis to understand the incident’s root cause, identify any gaps in security, and improve incident response procedures.
Disaster Recovery:
Disaster Prevention: Take proactive measures to minimize the likelihood of disasters, such as regular backups, redundancy, and resilience planning.
Disaster Identification: Identify a disaster situation, which could be caused by natural disasters, hardware failures, or other catastrophic events.
Disaster Declaration: Declare a disaster when the situation requires an organized response to recover critical operations.
Recovery Planning: Activate the disaster recovery plan, which should include predefined procedures for restoring data, systems, and critical business processes.
Recovery Execution: Implement the recovery plan to restore services and minimize downtime.
Post-Disaster Analysis: Analyze the disaster’s impact, identify lessons learned, and make necessary improvements to the disaster recovery plan.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Identify key personnel and teams responsible for incident and disaster response, such as incident responders, disaster recovery teams, and management.
Ensure that these teams are trained and prepared to handle incidents and disasters effectively.
Communication and Coordination:
Establish clear communication channels and protocols to ensure timely and effective communication between response teams, management, and other stakeholders.
Coordinate the response efforts to ensure that resources are allocated efficiently and the recovery process is smooth.
Testing and Maintenance:
Regularly test the incident and disaster response plans to identify any gaps or issues.
Maintain and update the plans as necessary to reflect changes in the organization’s infrastructure, business processes, or threats.
By having a robust incident and disaster response plan, organizations can minimize the impact of security incidents and disasters, recover quickly, and maintain business continuity.
Incident and disaster response is a series of actions and measures taken by an organization in the face of an unexpected event, incident or disaster to protect personnel, reduce property damage, quickly restore business operations, and ensure data integrity and availability. It mainly includes the following response strategies and steps: (1) Developing a disaster recovery plan (DRP) (2) Regular testing of the DRP (3) Backup and recovery strategy (4) Business continuity management (BCM) (5) Emergency response plan (6) Compliance and legal requirements (7) Technical preparation and resource deployment (8) Training and awareness raising.No matter how much security is implemented in an organization’s network or applications there is always the possibility of an incident of occurring. Incidents range in severity from false alarms, minor incidents, major incidents, and disasters. The last two severities have the capability of interrupting core business functionality which can result in financial loss, so organizations should have continuity and/or disaster recovery plans in place to help quickly respond to such incidents.
A key takeaway I learned from this chapter is about containment, how to stop the damage. There are a few main steps to take, first is disconnection. Disconnection from the server from the LAN and the entire system’s connection to the internet stops intrusions and prevents the server from the malicious users. Disconnection helps the attacker by making the server completely unavailable. Black-holing the attacker is a way of cutting off the attacker’s IP address, dropping all future connections to that IP address automatically. However, this alerts the attacker that they’ve been discovered and has them come back with a different IP address and approach. The next practice is to continue collecting as much data about the malicious attackers as possible if the damage is not too severe yet. After this would be containment.
Disaster recovery planning revolves around how to contain the chaos caused by an event and return to normal working order after an organisation’s normal operations have been disrupted. Disaster recovery plans are almost always implemented when tensions are high and minds may not be as calm as they could be. Any event that stops, prevents or interrupts an organisation from performing its work is considered a disaster. Once IT is unable to support mission-critical processes, the restoration and recovery process needs to be managed through a DRP.
The DRP is a technical complement to business-oriented BCP exercises. It includes
technical controls to stop disruptions and facilitate service restoration as soon as possible after an outage occurs.
Together, the DRP guides the actions of emergency responders until the ultimate goal is achieved, which is to return the primary operating facility to full operational capability.
The BCP plan defines the business steps to be taken as the business returns to normal. Principles of business continuity management include prioritizing personnel safety, developing evacuation plans, conducting drills, and strengthening communication to minimize potential failure losses. To ensure that the disaster impact covers all operations and processes, the BCP plan shall conduct regular tests to ensure its effectiveness, timeliness and efficiency for current business practices. As the business environment changes, and the personnel roles or positions are adjusted, the organization should regularly test and update the BCP plan as required.
The Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a proactive network security tool that continuously monitors network transmissions in real-time. When it detects suspicious activity, it promptly alerts the system or initiates responsive measures. Unlike other network security components, the IDS’s distinctiveness lies in its proactive approach to safeguarding.
Essentially, the IDS functions as a comprehensive computer monitoring system, constantly scanning for any abnormalities and promptly issuing warnings when they arise. Depending on the type of information sources and detection techniques employed, IDS can be categorized into various types. For instance, based on information sources, IDS can be either host-based or network-based. In terms of detection methods, it can employ either anomaly-based intrusion detection or misuse-based intrusion detection.
Contrary to firewalls, the IDS operates independently as a monitoring device, requiring no direct connection to any network link. This allows it to function seamlessly, even without network traffic flowing through it.
The main difference between event response and disaster recovery principles lies in their response focus.
Disaster recovery plans can reduce the risks and damages caused by unexpected disasters such as weather events, equipment damage, or human errors that have a negative impact on business.
Event response processing can reduce the risk of active data leakage. Event response plans ensure that in the event of a security vulnerability, appropriate personnel and programs are in place to effectively handle network security incidents and provide targeted responses to contain and eliminate threats.
Incident and Disaster Response refers to the prompt and effective actions taken to handle and respond to system failures, security incidents, natural disasters, or other emergency situations, in order to minimize potential losses and restore normal operations.
Incident and Disaster Response is a plan and process developed by organizations to protect their core business and critical resources. Timely response and appropriate actions are crucial in mitigating the impact on the organization when incidents or disasters occur. Here are the key aspects of incident and disaster response:
1. Emergency Plan: A pre-established emergency plan includes detailed steps and operational guidelines to address various potential emergencies. The emergency plan should clearly define responsibilities and authorities, and include emergency contact information for all relevant parties.
2. Incident Response: When security incidents or system failures occur, organizations should respond promptly, taking appropriate measures to control and mitigate the impact, prevent further harm, and protect critical data and resources. An incident response team should be designated and trained to promptly identify, investigate, and respond to various security incidents.
3. Disaster Recovery: In the event of natural disasters, hardware failures, system crashes, etc., a disaster recovery plan should ensure that businesses can resume normal operations in the shortest time possible and minimize the impact of business interruptions on the organization. The plan should include strategies for backing up and restoring data, the location of backup storage, and reliability testing of backup data.
4. Communication and Collaboration: Effective communication and collaboration are critical during emergencies. Maintaining communication with employees, customers, partners, and relevant stakeholders, providing accurate and timely information, can help alleviate panic, convey situational updates, and facilitate decision-making and actions.
5. Post-Incident Review and Improvement: Conducting an evaluation and analysis of the entire response process is crucial after incidents and disasters. By learning from experiences, identifying issues and errors, and implementing necessary improvements, organizations can enhance their response capabilities and minimize the impact of similar incidents in the future.
This chapter explores in detail how to effectively respond, recover, and reduce losses in the event of a cybersecurity incident or catastrophic failure. This chapter introduces the complete process of incident response in detail, including incident identification, evaluation, response, recovery and post-processing. These steps are designed to ensure that organizations are able to respond quickly and effectively when faced with security incidents.
Organizations need to have detailed emergency and disaster recovery plans in place and rehearse and update them regularly. In addition, organizations need to enhance training and awareness of employees to ensure that they can respond quickly and effectively in the event of a security incident or disaster. By understanding and implementing these strategies and approaches, organizations can more effectively respond to cybersecurity challenges and catastrophic failures, ensuring business continuity and data integrity.
According to my understanding, There is a difference between Incident Response and Disaster Recovery. An incident response plan is a proactive plan that helps you prepare for a cybersecurity breach. Incident response plans are important to any organization’s cyber security strategy. It’s a set of policies and procedures that outline what steps need to be taken in case of a cyberattack and how the organization plan to respond to an attack if its networks become compromised. The goal of an incident response plan is to ensure that your business can respond quickly and efficiently when there’s been a breach or loss of data. It also helps you identify what went wrong and how you can prevent it from happening again. On the other side, a disaster recovery plan means when your business is hit by a cyber-attack, you need to be prepared to get back up and running as quickly as possible. A disaster recovery plan is more specific as it focuses on restoring the business processes that an event or disaster has disrupted. It can also be used to prepare for future disasters by documenting existing processes and procedures followed in case of such an event so that they don’t need to be reinvented again if faced with another similar situation in the future.
Through this chapter I learned about business continuity plans as well as DRPs.
A business continuity plan outlines how the business will continue to operate during unplanned service interruptions or how the company plans to maintain or restore core business operations in the event of events such as natural disasters, fires, and cyberterrorism.A BCP is an important part of an organization’s risk management strategy, which involves defining all the risks that could affect the company’s operations.IT Disaster Recovery (IT DRP) specifies how the company will get IT disaster recovery (IT DRP) specifies how a company gets its IT back up and running, especially in terms of technology.IT DRP is critical to the success of business continuity recovery. Disasters can include natural events such as earthquakes or hurricanes, equipment failures, cyberattacks, and more. With IT DRP, organizations can respond quickly to disasters and take immediate action to minimize losses and resume operations as quickly as possible.