Creating Incident Response Playbooks: Why and How
Creating Incident Response Playbooks: Why and How
Efficiently responding to cybersecurity incidents calls for many things – including fast detection, clear communication channels, and collaboration among different departments. But perhaps the most important part of the puzzle is being properly prepared. This article describes how to build incident response playbooks and ensure consistency in response actions across your organization.
The Need for Incident Response Playbooks
An incident response playbook outlines step-by-step instructions and protocols to efficiently manage and mitigate the impact of cybersecurity incidents. Having a playbook standardizes what to do so that you reduce confusion among the chaos and panic of finding a cyber intrusion and trying to deal with it. A clear, predefined protocol to follow, where everyone knows their roles and responsibilities, makes a huge difference in cutting response times.
The slower the response time, the more damage an incident generally causes to company operations and reputations. Current incident response times average around 277 days to identify and contain a breach. Clearly, the level of preparedness and planning for response isn’t where it needs to be – only 45% of companies even have an incident response plan in the first place.
Building an incident response playbook also aids in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. For example, in US healthcare, HIPAA requires covered entities and their business associates to have policies and procedures in place to respond to security incidents. The SOX act for publicly traded companies requires a formal, auditable, and documented approach to handling any type of data breach or cyberattack, which includes maintaining proper records of such incidents and the company’s response to them.
Building an Incident Response Playbook: Step-by-Step
Define the events that initiate incident response
Confusion over the semantics of what counts as an incident immediately hampers any ability for a coordinated response. So, to start, get very clear on the events that initiate the response processes outlined in your playbook. Triggering events could include automated detection systems going off, alerts about malicious code, reports from users, loss of important IT services, etc. Or you could base definitions of incidents on specific attacker tactics and techniques. A good resource is NIST SP 800-61, especially page 51 of the PDF.
Establish roles and responsibilities
Before distilling complex incident response processes into a set of simpler steps it’s imperative that you have the right people in place and that those people are clear on their roles in incident response. Required roles include security analysts, an incident commander or manager, an incident reporter familiar with internal communications, and someone to coordinate with third parties who may have been affected. Assign specific responsibilities for each role too. Ensure that the response team includes members with diverse skills that cover technical expertise, legal knowledge, and communication. You’ll likely need to involve people from IT, security professionals, legal counsel, and PR representatives.
Develop response flows
For each type of incident, create a step-by-step response plan flow that covers initial detection, containment strategies, eradication measures, and recovery processes. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a detailed document that provides direction and guidance on important processes and procedures for each of these steps. It’s worth writing checklists for quick reference during an incident and creating decision trees or flowcharts to guide the response process with minimal confusion.
Include communication plans
Communication plans in incident response playbooks play a pivotal role in managing the narrative around an incident, ensuring legal compliance, and maintaining business reputation. These plans serve as a framework for how you communicate about the incident both within the organization and to external stakeholders, including customers, partners, regulatory bodies, and in some cases, the general public.
As a part of this, you’ll need to identify key audiences and determine the appropriate messaging for each. Internal communication focuses on informing employees about the incident's status, expected actions, and any potential disruptions or changes to the way they work. Externally, craft plans to address customer concerns, comply with regulatory reporting requirements, and manage public relations aspects. This might involve creating pre-approved templates for press releases, customer notifications, and regulatory reports.
Test and refine
The effectiveness and relevance of response playbooks depend on regular testing and refinement. Tabletop exercises are very useful tools here that assess the practical application of the playbook in a simulated environment. During these exercises, the incident response team along with other relevant stakeholders gather in a controlled setting to walk through various hypothetical incident scenarios. These scenarios are ideally as realistic as possible.
The value of these tabletop exercises lies in their ability to highlight areas where the playbook might need refinement. For example, Tabletop 2.0 exercises incorporate simulated live-fire cyber attack scenarios. That not only pulls in the SOC team, but the real-world experience could reveal that certain response steps are not as clear or practical as intended, or that communication between different team members could be more efficient. The exercises also provide an opportunity for team members to familiarize themselves with their roles in a safe, low-stress environment, foster teamwork, and improve their ability to respond to real incidents.
Tips for Better Response Playbooks
Creating an effective incident response playbook involves more than just outlining procedures; it requires attention to usability, clarity, and adaptability. Here are some tips to consider for building better playbooks:
Make it user-friendly: Design the playbook to be easily navigable and understandable, even under stress. And make sure to use clear language, bullet points, and flowcharts for straightforward guidance.
Customize to your organization: Tailor the playbook to reflect the specific risks, technologies, and organizational structure of your company. Templates, like CISA’s for playbooks in US federal government systems, can be useful for guidance or as inspiration for a basic structure, but they probably won’t address unique aspects of your business or unique threats in your industry.
Get scenario-specific: Provide detailed procedures for a variety of scenarios, while taking into account different types of attacks and their potential impact.
Don’t forget compliance obligations: Address legal and regulatory obligations specific to your industry and region when it comes to identifying and reporting cyber security incidents. Include important reporting timelines for compliance with laws like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS and include templates for internal and external communications, such as notifications to regulatory bodies, customers, and the media.
Promote regular training and drills: Conduct live-fire cyber attack simulations and other training sessions for the incident response team and relevant personnel to reinforce awareness of your incident playbook’s steps along with reminders of roles and responsibilities.
Iterate and update: Regularly review and update your playbook to reflect evolving threats, technological advancements, and lessons learned from past incidents. Static playbooks can become outdated and leave you unprepared to deal with future incidents. It’s also worth encouraging feedback from everyone involved with incident response to improve the playbook's effectiveness and relevance.
Ensure accessibility: Make the playbook readily available to all relevant staff in both digital and physical formats if necessary. But don’t forget the need for security and confidentiality in its distribution and storage.
Better Prepare with Live-Fire Cyber Ranges
Incident response playbooks are handy tools in improving response efficiency. A good playbook serves as a compass that guides teams through the chaos of security breaches with well-defined procedures and ensures that every action contributes towards a swift resolution.
But testing your playbooks out is what keeps them relevant. Regularly testing them in live-fire simulated exercises as a team ensures that when a real incident strikes, the playbook won't just be a theoretical guide, but a battle-tested blueprint for success.
Cloud Range provides custom, live-fire cyber ranges for you to test incident response playbooks out and improve them. There are thousands of attack simulations to select from, and you can even create a customized replica of your network for the most realistic tests possible.
