Ensuring your business can withstand and swiftly recover from data security incidents is crucial. With cyber threats becoming increasingly sophisticated, having robust business continuity and incident response plans is no longer optional - it's essential. These plans are also necessary for compliance with frameworks like GDPR, Cyber Essentials, NHS DSPT, DTAC, ISO 27001, and more.

Despite their overlap, each plan plays a specific role when the worst happens. In this guide, we'll outline their roles, similarities, and differences, what each covers, and how to implement them across your organisation.

Business Continuity vs. Incident Response Plans:

Before we get into the specifics, let's clarify the similarities and differences between Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) and Incident Response Plans (IRPs). Both focus on swiftly restoring your business to normal operations. They are crucial parts of your organisation's overall risk management strategy.

However, a BCP covers a wide range of business disruptions, including natural disasters, supply chain issues, and cyber-attacks. On the other hand, an IRP focuses specifically on cybersecurity incidents like data breaches and malware attacks. While BCPs ensure overall business operations are restored as soon as possible, IRPs manage the technical aspects of cyber incidents, ensuring threats are contained and systems are restored quickly.‍

Business Continuity Plans (BCPs):

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a strategic framework that outlines procedures and instructions an organisation must follow during and after a crisis to ensure that critical business functions continue to operate. Although cyber security incidents are often included within a Business Continuity Plan, BCPs cover a wide range of disruptions, including natural disasters, supply chain issues, and, like the recent Cyberstrike fault, significant IT disruptions. Without a BCP, businesses are vulnerable to prolonged downtime, data loss, financial losses, and damage to their reputation.

Why You Need a Business Continuity Plan:

A BCP is vital for several reasons:

1. Minimise Downtime: By identifying essential functions and establishing protocols for their restoration, a BCP reduces the time your company spends inactive. It ensures that priorities are clear and focused and that staff know who needs to be contacted and what measures must be put in place to return to critical operations.

2. Protect Reputation: Customers, partners, and stakeholders expect reliability and dependability. A disruption can severely damage your reputation if it leads to prolonged service outages or data breaches. Conversely, effectively managing and overcoming a disruption can enhance your reputation as a resilient and trustworthy partner.

3. Financial Safeguard: Operational halts can lead to significant revenue loss, especially if your business relies on continuous service delivery. Moreover, data loss can incur costs related to data recovery efforts, regulatory fines, and loss of business opportunities. By having a BCP, you can significantly reduce these financial risks.

4. Compliance: Regulatory frameworks and standards like the GDPR, NHS DSPT, DTAC, ISO 20071, and more require businesses to have continuity plans to meet compliance, protect data, and maintain operations during crises. This is especially true for organisations supplying the UK's Critical National Infrastructure, including the MOD and the NHS.

What Do Business Continuity Plans Include?

A comprehensive BCP typically includes the following components:

1. Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis: Identify and assess potential risks to your business, such as cyber-attacks, natural disasters, and equipment failures. Conduct a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) to understand the potential impact of disruptions on business operations and establish recovery objectives.

2. Strategy Development: Based on the risk assessment and BIA, develop strategies to address the identified risks. These strategies may include:some text
   • Alternate operating procedures
   • Backup systems/resources
   • Emergency communication protocols
   • Recovery time objectives

3. Response and Recovery Plans: Outline specific actions to restore normal operations during and after a disruption. This includes:some text
   • Steps for immediate response
   • Roles and responsibilities of the response team
   • Communication plans
   • Recovery procedures.

Testing and Training: Regularly test the BCP through simulations and inform employees about updates and changes.

Maintenance and Review: Continuously update the BCP to address new risks and changes within the organisation.

Incident Response Plans (IRPs):

An Incident Response Plan (IRP) is a detailed set of instructions and procedures designed to help organisations detect, respond to, and recover from cyber security incidents. Unlike BCPs, which cover a range of disruptions, IRPs focus specifically on cyber incidents such as data breaches, malware attacks, and other security threats. An effective IRP helps minimise damage, reduce recovery time, and mitigate the impact on business operations.

Incident Response Plans are essential for several reasons:

1. Quick Identification and Response: An IRP enables your organisation to quickly identify and respond to cybersecurity incidents, preventing further damage.

2. Minimising Impact: By containing and eradicating threats promptly, an IRP minimises the impact of incidents on your business operations, financial health, and reputation.

3. Structured Recovery: An IRP provides a structured approach to recover from incidents, restoring normal operations as swiftly as possible.

4. Continuous Improvement: By analysing incidents and response efforts, an IRP helps organisations learn from each event, improving their security posture over time.

5. Regulatory Compliance: Like BCPs, many regulatory frameworks and industry standards require organisations to have an IRP, ensuring that incidents are controlled and potential data breaches are minimised. For example, the GDPR requires organisations to notify the ICO of a data breach within 72 hours. Additionally, to obtain ISO 27001 certification, an organisation must demonstrate evidence of a robust incident response plan and process.

What Should Your Incident Response Plan Include?

Preparation & Responsibilities:

• Define your incident response team, detailing roles, contact information, and when to contact them.
• Set up clear communication channels, including contact information for all responders, on-call escalation contacts, incident reporting methods, and backup facilities for communication and sensitive materials.
• Regular risk assessments and implementing measures like host security and malware prevention are also crucial.
• Ensure your IRP is accessible and updated regularly.

Detection and Analysis

Next, outline the types of incidents that may affect your organisation and how you'll handle each. These include but aren't limited to:

• Malicious Code: Malware, including ransomware.
• Denial of Service: Traffic floods taking down a website, phone lines, or systems.
• Phishing: Emails tricking someone into trusting a link or attachment.
• Unauthorised Access: Unauthorised access to systems, accounts, or data.
• Insider Threat: Malicious or accidental actions by an employee.
• Data Breach: Lost or stolen devices or documents or unauthorised data access.
• Targeted Attack: Sophisticated attacks specifically aimed at your business.

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Understanding the type and severity of an incident allows you to determine how urgent your response should be and ensures the correct people are involved from the outset. Assess the impact by considering the following:

• Functional Impact: How the incident affects your services.
• Information Impact: The extent of data loss, alteration, or breach.
• Recoverability: How quickly and effectively you can recover.

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When assessing an incident, consider these severity factors:

• Availability: Is the availability of data or systems impacted? What is the impact on business operations?
• Confidentiality: Has sensitive data been accessed, leaked, or stolen?
• Integrity: Could data or systems have been altered such that they cannot be trusted?

Once an incident is identified, its extent determined, and its severity understood, notify relevant parties to initiate containment, mitigation, and recovery. If necessary, prepare communications for customers and notify regulatory bodies like the ICO if data is breached.

Containment and Recovery:

The next step is outlining how you'll deal with the incident. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre recommends four core response stages:

• Analyse: Prioritise tasks and review findings to take necessary containment and mitigation actions.
• Contain/Mitigate: Reduce the impact by blocking activity, isolating systems, and resetting accounts. Consider potential consequences before taking action.
• Remediate/Eradicate: Remove the threat from your network and systems, confirming success before moving to recovery.
• Recover: Return systems to' business as usual,' addressing any final regulatory, legal, or PR issues.

Post-Incident Review

After resolving the incident, conduct a thorough review to learn from the experience. This review should cover:

• Lessons from the Incident: Identify security improvements for earlier detection and prevention. Plan to gather difficult-to-obtain data for future incidents.
• Lessons from the Response: Assess response effectiveness, noting areas for improvement. Keep detailed records of activities during the response to assist with this review.

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Additionally, staff training on incident response is crucial. "Exercise in a Box" is an online tool from the NCSC that helps organisations test and practice their response to a cyberattack. It's free, user-friendly, and includes everything needed to plan, review, and learn how your organisation would handle an actual security incident.

BCPs and IRPs are integral to your organisation's overall risk management programme. When chaos occurs, these plans provide a clear action plan to restore normal operations and minimise disruption. As with any aspect of risk management, these plans should be continuously reviewed to ensure they are up to date and that any changes are communicated to relevant team members. An incident is not the time to discover your response plan hasn't been updated in the last 12 months.

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A platform like Naq can significantly simplify compliance and information security risk management. Our platform continuously updates your information security policies and provides clear guidance on maintaining your organisation's security. Naq enables you to manage your entire risk programme within a single platform, using pre-mapped risks or building your own, automatically conducting risk assessments, and managing them end-to-end. Additionally, Naq's customers receive expert guidance on conducting a BCP and incident response plan and can manage incidents within the platform.

Naq makes it easy to meet compliance with frameworks like ISO 27001, DSPT, and DTAC, which require these plans, and maintain a strong cybersecurity posture. Book a demo today to see how Naq can streamline your compliance and ensure your organisation is prepared for any disruption.

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