Incidentresponseplan

1. Purpose

The purpose of this Incident Response Plan (IRP) is to establish a structured process for identifying, reporting, containing, investigating, responding to, and recovering from information security incidents.

The objective is to minimize business disruption, protect customer data, preserve evidence where appropriate, and restore normal operations as quickly as possible.

2. Scope

This plan applies to:

• Employees
• Contractors
• Third-party service providers
• Information systems
• Cloud services
• Applications
• Infrastructure
• Customer data

3. Definition of a Security Incident

A security incident is any event that may compromise the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of systems or information.

Examples include:

• Unauthorized access attempts
• Malware infections
• Phishing attacks
• Data breaches
• Credential compromise
• Ransomware
• Denial-of-service attacks
• Accidental disclosure of sensitive data
• Misconfigured security controls

4. Incident Response Team

Incident Coordinator

Responsible for:

• Managing incident response activities
• Coordinating communications
• Approving containment actions

Technical Response Personnel

Responsible for:

• Investigation
• Containment
• Remediation
• Recovery activities

Management

Responsible for:

• Escalation decisions
• Customer communications
• Legal and contractual notifications

5. Incident Severity Levels

Critical

Examples:

• Confirmed data breach
• Ransomware infection
• Significant service outage
• Compromise of production systems

Response Target:

Immediate response

High

Examples:

• Unauthorized administrative access
• Malware infection
• Exposure of sensitive information

Response Target:

Within 4 hours

Medium

Examples:

• Suspicious login activity
• Failed security controls

Response Target:

Within 1 business day

Low

Examples:

• Policy violations
• Minor configuration issues

Response Target:

As resources permit

6. Incident Response Process

Phase 1 – Identification

Activities:

• Review alerts
• Analyze logs
• Validate reports
• Determine severity

Document:

• Date/time
• Systems affected
• Reporter
• Preliminary impact

Phase 2 – Containment

Objectives:

• Stop ongoing damage
• Prevent spread

Examples:

• Disable accounts
• Block IP addresses
• Isolate systems
• Revoke credentials

Phase 3 – Investigation

Determine:

• Root cause
• Scope of impact
• Systems affected
• Data affected
• Timeline of events

Evidence should be preserved where appropriate.

Phase 4 – Eradication

Remove the threat.

Examples:

• Remove malware
• Patch vulnerabilities
• Rotate credentials
• Correct misconfigurations

Phase 5 – Recovery

Restore normal operations.

Activities:

• Validate systems
• Restore backups
• Monitor closely
• Verify service functionality

Phase 6 – Lessons Learned

Within a reasonable period after resolution:

• Conduct review meeting
• Identify process improvements
• Update documentation
• Implement corrective actions

7. Communication Procedures

Security incidents shall be communicated based on severity.

Communications may include:

• Internal personnel
• Customers
• Service providers
• Legal advisors
• Regulatory authorities (if applicable)

Only authorized personnel may communicate externally regarding incidents.

8. Documentation Requirements

All incidents shall be documented.

Records should include:

• Timeline
• Impact assessment
• Actions taken
• Resolution details
• Lessons learned

9. Testing and Review

This plan shall be reviewed annually and updated when significant changes occur.

Periodic tabletop exercises may be conducted to validate readiness.