Elite Group of Industry Experts Offer Incident Response Best Practices
As reported last week, 4Discovery was honored to sponsor the Annual Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law (JITPL) Symposium at the John Marshall School on Friday, April 10. The presenters included thought leaders from academia, the FBI’s Cyber Division, and leading law firms. Not surprising, breach response was a hot topic.
Indeed, 2014 has been described as the year of “Mega Breaches” (think Target), and with Anthem and others suffering massive cyber events already this year, 2015 is looking like it could eclipse 2014. Breaches are inevitable, and costly…so the investment in remediation often focuses on breach response and the associated reduction in the cost of the breach (financial and reputational) through an effective Incident Response Plan (IRP)
So what are the best practices for influencing the cost of a data breach?
- Have an Incident Response Plan in place and periodically test the IRP.
- Outside consultants (forensic investigators, legal, crisis management) should be promptly engaged.
- Speed of the Incident Response Team’s engagement, assessment of the scope of the breach / potential risk and execution of containment/remediation efforts.
- Proactively managing as opposed to reacting. [1]
As further validation of the value of a timely and well-executed IRP, 56% of information security executives listed investing in an Incident Response Team as the most significant change to their operational and compliance programs following the 2014 Target data breach. [2]
[1] According to Symantec / Ponemon Institure, with credit to Vedder Price’s presentation on “Developments in Cybersecurity Law & Best Practices”. John Marshall Law School’s JITPL Symposium, April 10, 2015.
[2] “2014: A Year of Mega Breaches”, Ponemon Institute Study. January 2015
