Term Paper: Managing Organizational Risk Response ✓ Solved

Term Paper: Managing Organizational Risk Respond to the foll

Term Paper: Managing Organizational Risk Respond to the following: 1. Describe the objectives and main elements of a Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) plan. 2. Analyze how a CIRT plan fits into the overall risk management approach of an organization and specify how it supports other risk management plans. 3. Provide at least two examples demonstrating how CIRT plans define the who, what, when, where, and why of the response effort. 4. Analyze how development of a CIRT plan enables management to adopt a more proactive approach to risk management. Include recommendations for remaining proactive in continual improvement and updating of CIRT plans. 5. Infer the evolution of threats over the last decade that organizations must now consider. 6. Predict the evolution of regulatory requirements mandating risk management processes and plans. Prepare a 1000-word paper and include credible references with in-text citations.

Paper For Above Instructions

Introduction

A Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) plan is a structured program to detect, contain, eradicate, recover from, and learn after information security incidents. Effective CIRT plans reduce business impact, preserve evidence, and restore operations while ensuring regulatory compliance and stakeholder confidence (NIST, 2012; ISO/IEC, 2016).

Objectives and Main Elements of a CIRT Plan

Primary objectives of a CIRT plan include rapid detection and containment of incidents, minimizing operational and reputational damage, ensuring legal and regulatory obligations are met, and enabling continuous improvement through lessons learned (NIST, 2012). Key elements commonly specified are:

  • Scope and mission statement defining roles and authority of the CIRT (ISO/IEC, 2016).
  • Team structure and responsibilities: incident commanders, technical analysts, legal, communications, and business continuity liaisons (NIST, 2012).
  • Notification and escalation pathways, including internal and external stakeholders and law enforcement engagement policies (ENISA, 2019).
  • Incident classification and prioritization criteria tied to business impact and risk appetite (CIS, 2021).
  • Response procedures and playbooks for common incident types (malware, data breach, insider threat) with forensic preservation guidance (SANS, 2018).
  • Communication templates for internal updates, executive briefings, and public disclosures aligned with legal/regulatory requirements (GDPR, PCI DSS).
  • Post-incident review and continuous improvement processes to update controls, training, and playbooks (NIST, 2012).

How a CIRT Plan Fits into Overall Risk Management

A CIRT plan is a tactical and operational layer within an enterprise risk management (ERM) framework. It operationalizes response to realized threats while supporting preventive, detective, and corrective controls. Integrations include:

  • Risk assessment and treatment: CIRT incident data feed threat metrics back into risk registers to adjust likelihood and impact estimations (Gartner, 2022).
  • Business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR): CIRT-led containment and recovery procedures coordinate with BC/DR plans to restore critical services (NIST, 2012).
  • Compliance and legal risk management: incident handling ensures timely breach notification and evidence preservation to meet regulatory obligations (GDPR, PCI DSS) and reduce legal exposure.
  • Security operations and vulnerability management: CIRT findings prioritize patching and compensating controls based on exploited weaknesses (CIS, 2021).

Thus, the CIRT serves as the bridge between strategic risk tolerance and tactical operational response, ensuring incidents are resolved in ways that support enterprise risk objectives (ISO/IEC, 2016).

Examples Demonstrating Who, What, When, Where, and Why

Example 1 — Ransomware outbreak:

  • Who: Incident commander (CISO), lead analyst, IT ops, legal, PR, and business-unit lead (SANS, 2018).
  • What: Encrypting malware affecting file servers and endpoints.
  • When: Immediate escalation on detection; 0–4 hours for containment actions (isolate affected segments) and 4–48 hours for eradication and restoration.
  • Where: Affected datacenter cluster and remote endpoints; CIRT establishes a secure analysis environment.
  • Why: To stop lateral spread, preserve forensic evidence for root-cause analysis and law enforcement, and restore business-critical functions (NIST, 2012).

Example 2 — Data exfiltration suspected via compromised cloud credentials:

  • Who: Cloud security engineer, identity/access management lead, privacy officer, legal, and business data owners.
  • What: Unauthorized removal of sensitive customer records.
  • When: Immediate containment of compromised credentials, followed by focused forensic collection within the first 24 hours to meet notification windows.
  • Where: Cloud tenant, affected services, and potentially third-party integrations.
  • Why: To stop ongoing exfiltration, quantify exposure, notify affected parties, and comply with data breach regulations (GDPR, 2016).

Proactive Management and Recommendations for Continual Improvement

Developing and exercising a CIRT plan shifts management from reactive firefighting to proactive risk mitigation. By capturing incident metrics and root causes, leadership can prioritize investments, strengthen detection and prevention controls, and refine policies (Ponemon/IBM, 2023). Recommendations for maintaining proactivity include:

  • Regular tabletop and full-scale exercises with cross-functional participation to validate roles and refine playbooks (NIST, 2012).
  • Automated telemetry and analytics to reduce detection time and enable rapid TTP (tactics, techniques, and procedures) mapping (Verizon, 2023).
  • Continuous threat hunting informed by threat intelligence to discover undetected adversaries (ENISA, 2019).
  • Periodic plan review tied to business changes, technology refreshes, and lessons learned after every incident (ISO/IEC, 2016).
  • Maintain a vendor and third-party response plan to address supply-chain incidents swiftly (Gartner, 2022).

Evolution of Threats Over the Last Decade

Threats have evolved from opportunistic malware to targeted, financially motivated, and nation-state techniques. Notable shifts include widespread ransomware-as-a-service, supply-chain compromises, abuse of cloud misconfigurations, and sophisticated social engineering and business email compromise (Verizon, 2023; IBM/Ponemon, 2023). Attackers now blend cyber and physical tactics, leverage AI tools to scale phishing, and exploit API and identity weaknesses. These trends demand incident response plans that cover cloud-first architectures, third-party dependencies, and hybrid workforce scenarios (CIS, 2021).

Predicted Evolution of Regulatory Requirements

Regulatory landscapes will continue tightening, with several predictable directions:

  • Mandated incident reporting windows will shorten and expand in scope, including obligations for near-real-time notification to regulators (GDPR precedent; emerging national breach laws) (Gartner, 2022).
  • Specific requirements for incident response capabilities and evidence retention, including third-party and cloud provider oversight, will increase (PCI DSS updates and national cybersecurity laws) (PCI SSC, 2022).
  • Risk-management frameworks will become prescriptive in critical sectors (financial, healthcare, energy), requiring documented and tested CIRT plans as compliance conditions (ISO/IEC; national directives) (ISO/IEC, 2016).
  • Regulation may incentivize threat-sharing and standardized reporting formats to improve collective defenses (ENISA, 2019).

Conclusion

A mature CIRT plan is essential to modern organizational risk management. It defines roles, procedures, and timelines; integrates with broader risk processes; supports proactive defense through continuous learning; and must evolve with threats and regulatory expectations. Executives should treat CIRT programs as strategic risk controls, invest in exercises and telemetry, and keep plans current to meet escalating technical and compliance demands (NIST, 2012; Verizon, 2023).

References

  • NIST. (2012). Computer Security Incident Handling Guide, NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2. National Institute of Standards and Technology. https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-61r2.pdf
  • ISO/IEC. (2016). ISO/IEC 27035-1:2016 — Information security incident management. International Organization for Standardization. https://www.iso.org/standard/60803.html
  • ENISA. (2019). Good Practice Guide for Incident Management. European Union Agency for Cybersecurity. https://www.enisa.europa.eu/publications
  • Verizon. (2023). 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report. Verizon. https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/
  • IBM & Ponemon Institute. (2023). Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023. https://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach
  • SANS Institute. (2018). Incident Handler's Handbook. SANS Reading Room. https://www.sans.org/white-papers/incident/
  • CIS. (2021). CIS Controls v8. Center for Internet Security. https://www.cisecurity.org/controls/cis-controls-list/
  • European Parliament. (2016). General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj
  • PCI Security Standards Council. (2022). PCI DSS v4.0. https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/document_library
  • Gartner. (2022). Emerging Risk Management Trends: Cybersecurity Integration with ERM. Gartner Research. https://www.gartner.com/en/research

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