Incident Response Plan in Cyber Security Template

Standard Operating Procedure: Cyber Security Incident Response (CSIR)

1. Document Control Block

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2. Executive Summary & Purpose

The purpose of this SOP is to provide a standardized, repeatable framework for identifying, containing, eradicating, and recovering from cyber security incidents. This plan ensures operational continuity, data integrity, and regulatory compliance by minimizing mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR).

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3. Scope & Prerequisites

Scope: All digital assets, cloud environments, and on-premises infrastructure owned or managed by Template Registry. Required Tools:

• SIEM/SOAR: (e.g., Splunk, Sentinel) for log aggregation and automated response.
• Out-of-Band Communication: (e.g., Signal, encrypted Slack instance) for internal coordination.
• Forensic Suite: (e.g., FTK, Volatility, or cloud-native snapshots).
• Hardened Backups: Immutable recovery points (verified quarterly).

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4. Roles & Responsibilities (RACI)

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5. Step-by-Step Procedure

Phase 1: Identification & Triage

• Log event triggers confirmed via SIEM alert.
• Validate incident authenticity (filter false positives).
• Determine scope (affected systems, data sensitivity, potential business impact).
• Classify severity (Low, Medium, High, Critical).

Phase 2: Containment

• Initiate short-term isolation (e.g., segment VLANs, revoke compromised credentials).
• Perform live memory capture of infected endpoints.
• Deploy system snapshots to prevent further data corruption.

Phase 3: Eradication

• Identify root cause (e.g., vulnerability exploitation, phishing payload).
• Rebuild systems from known-good hardened images.
• Patch vulnerabilities and rotate all compromised authentication secrets.

Phase 4: Recovery

• Restore data from immutable backups.
• Conduct integrity validation testing on restored services.
• Transition systems back to production traffic.

Phase 5: Post-Incident Activity

• Perform "Lessons Learned" review within 72 hours.
• Document deviations from standard SOP.
• Update documentation and security controls (Post-Mortem Report).

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6. Quality Assurance & Pro-Tips

• The Golden Rule: Never perform triage on the production instance. Always move to an isolated, mirrored environment for forensic analysis.
• Common Pitfall: Failing to rotate keys after eradication; the attacker often retains persistence via secondary backdoors.
• Key Metric: MTTR Target < 4 hours for Critical incidents. If your team is exceeding this, audit your automated playbook (SOAR) logic.
• Verification: Conduct unannounced tabletop exercises quarterly to validate human readiness.

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7. Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When should we involve legal counsel? A: Legal must be notified immediately if the incident involves PII, PHI, or sensitive financial data, as mandatory reporting timelines (e.g., GDPR 72-hour rule) are triggered.

Q: Should we pay the ransom during a ransomware event? A: No. Payment does not guarantee decryption, encourages future attacks, and often violates international anti-money laundering regulations. Focus on immutable recovery.

Q: What if the Incident Lead is unavailable? A: The RACI matrix includes an "Incident Deputy" in the Appendix (TR-SOP-SEC-001-APP1); the role automatically cascades to the most senior available engineer on the rotation.

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Authorized by: Julian Vance, Chief Architect, Template Registry.