What is Cyber Incident Response Playbooks, and Why Do They Matter?

Posted by Marbenz Antonio on March 24, 2022

How a Cyber Incident Response Playbook may benefit you and your company, not simply in an emergency

A cyber incident response playbook may be explained in two ways. An incident response playbook can be regarded as a bridge between policy and a comprehensive process, or it might be a checklist of steps.

In this blog, we will discuss the following topics:

• What is a playbook for incident response?
• What are the benefits of having a cyber incident response playbook?
• What steps do you take to create these playbooks?

What is an Incident Response Playbook?

A playbook is a list of activities at its most basic level. Don’t underestimate the value of a well-thought-out playbook or checklist. A precise and thorough checklist of things to do during an emergency has helped pilots avoid significant aviation tragedies. Nurses and frontline health workers save lives daily by following standardized playbooks of well-planned measures for a variety of emergency circumstances.

The concept is that by repeatedly practicing the processes in a playbook, they become ingrained in the pilot’s or healthcare worker’s muscle memory. As a result, in a crisis, the person in control reacts almost intuitively to the chaos. The aviation and healthcare sectors rely significantly on playbooks for this reason. Any company that is serious about handling a crisis effectively should have a playbook in place, especially for cyber disasters.

Are Playbooks only for Emergencies?

No. Other than emergencies, playbooks or checklists may be utilized for a variety of situations, including crisis planning, onboarding new employees, and sending out special notifications to all employees.

When it comes to reacting to an incident, the cyber incident response playbook should detail exactly what a team or teams should do when a key asset is compromised.

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), NIST SP 800-61.r2, ISO 27001:2013, and PCI-DSS are all examples of solid cyber event response playbooks.

What are the benefits of using Cyber Incident Response Playbooks?

Responding to any disaster or crisis, especially while under stress, can be difficult. Add the intricacy of a cyber-attack, the stealthy nature of cybercriminals who are masters at remaining unnoticed, and the possibility of digital damage that may go undiscovered for weeks, if not months, to a cyber crisis.

Additionally, by the time the organization realizes it has been hacked, it is frequently too late. Customers are frequently frightened about their sensitive information falling into the wrong hands because cybercriminals have already acquired unlawful access, valuable data has been stolen, rumors abound in the media, and cybercriminals have already gained unauthorized access.

As a result, the only meaningful security precaution a company can take is to be prepared to properly respond to a cyber-attack if one occurs. This is in addition to the usual safety protocols.

The company must act quickly and accurately, which can only be accomplished if it has a well-tested incident response playbook on hand.

The playbook should include the following:

• Concentrate on the important asset, then one or more particular risks to it.
• Have dependable technology that ‘invokes’ the playbook.
• Include details such as who will authorize replies, how the assault will be quarantined, and who will handle the media, among other things.
• In the event of a cyber incident or attack, be informed of and verify that the organization complies with any regulatory obligations.

By now, you’ve probably figured out what an incident response playbook is and why you need one. So, how can you put up an incident response plan that will sufficiently safeguard your company from cyber-attacks? A smart place to start is with a Cyber Incident Response Playbooks training course.

Depending on the nature of your organization, an effective playbooks training course should teach you how to construct basic to complex incident response playbooks. It should also assist you in optimizing your current playbooks.

You should be able to design a playbook that sufficiently protects your company from the damaging effects of a data breach or cyber-attack using this information. You may also opt to evaluate the efficacy of your incident response playbooks with cyber crisis tabletop workshops to truly push your cyber incident response capabilities to the next level.

In a simulated cyber-attack situation, these courses assess how useful your playbooks are. You may next concentrate on simplifying the playbooks even more to improve your cyber resilience.

Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com