Incident Response Policy of Simprosys InfoMedia

Overview:
Security Incident Management at Simprosys Infomedia is necessary to detect security incidents, determine the magnitude of the threat presented by these incidents, respond to these incidents, and if required, notify Simprosys Infomedia members of the breach.

Purpose:

This policy defines the requirement for reporting and responding to incidents related to Simprosys Infomedia information systems and operations. Incident response provides Simprosys Infomedia with the capability to identify when a security incident occurs. If monitoring were not in place, the magnitude of harm associated with the incident would be significantly greater than if the incident were noted and corrected.


This policy applies to all information systems and information system components of Simprosys Infomedia. Specifically, it includes:


  • Mainframes, servers, and other devices that provide centralized computing capabilities.

  • Devices that provide centralized storage capabilities.

  • Desktops, laptops, and other devices that provide distributed computing capabilities.

  • Routers, switches, and other devices that provide network capabilities.

  • Firewalls, Intrusion Detection/Prevention (IDP) sensors, and other devices that provide dedicated security capabilities.


Incident Response Plan:

The person who discovers the incident will inform the company Simprosys Infomedia concerned department. List possible sources of those who may discover the incident. The known sources should be provided with a contact procedure and contact list. Sources requiring contact information may be:
  • Helpdesk

  • Intrusion detection monitoring personnel

  • A system administrator

  • A firewall administrator

  • A business partner

  • A manager

  • The security department or a security person.

  • An outside source.

Steps to take appropriate actions on responding to incidents:

1. List all sources and check off whether they have contact information and procedures. Usually, each source would contact one 24/7 reachable entity at Simprosys Infomedia. Those in the IT department may have different contact procedures than those outside the IT department.

2. If the person discovering the incident is a member of the IT department or affected department, they will proceed to step 4

3. If the person discovering the incident is not a member of the IT department or affected department, they will approach reachable grounds security department at security@simprosys.com.

4. The IT staff member or affected department staff member who receives the call (or discovered the incident) will refer to their contact list for both management personnel to be contacted and incident response members to be contacted. The staff member will approach those designated on the list. The staff member will contact the incident response manager / Technical Officer using both email and phone messages while being sure other appropriate and backup personnel and designated managers are contacted. The staff member will log the information received in the same format as the grounds security office in the previous step. The staff member could possibly add the following:

  • Is the equipment affected business critical?

  • What is the severity of the potential impact?

  • Name of system being targeted, along with operating system, IP address, and location.

  • IP address and any information about the origin of the attack.

5. Contacted members of the response team will meet or discuss the situation over the telephone and determine a response strategy.

  • Is the incident real or perceived?

  • Is the incident still in progress?

  • What data or property is threatened and how critical is it?

  • What is the impact on the business should the attack succeed? Minimal, serious, or critical?

  • What system or systems are targeted, where are they located physically and on the network?

  • Is the incident inside the trusted network?

  • Is the response urgent?

  • Can the incident be quickly contained?

  • Will the response alert the attacker and do we care?

  • What type of incident is this? Example: virus, worm, intrusion, abuse, damage.

6. Raise Incident Ticket: The incident will be categorized into the highest applicable level of one of the following categories:

  • Category one – A threat to public safety or life.

  • Category two – A threat to sensitive data

  • Category three – A threat to computer systems

  • Category four – A disruption of services

7. Team members will establish and follow one of the following procedures basing their response on the incident assessment:

  • Worm response procedure

  • Virus response procedure

  • System failure procedure

  • Active intrusion response procedure – Is critical data at risk?

  • Inactive Intrusion response procedure

  • System abuse procedure

  • Property theft response procedure

  • Website denial of service response procedure

  • Database or file denial of service response procedure

  • Spyware response procedure.

8. The team may create additional procedures which are not foreseen in this document. If there is no applicable procedure in place, the team must document what was done and later establish a procedure for the incident.

9. Team members will use forensic techniques, including reviewing system logs, looking for gaps in logs, reviewing intrusion detection logs, and interviewing witnesses and the incident victim to determine how the incident was caused. Only authorized personnel should be performing interviews or examining evidence, and the authorized personnel may vary by situation and the organization.

10. Team members will recommend changes to prevent the occurrence from happening again or infecting other systems.

11. Upon management approval, the changes will be implemented. 12. Stabilizing Systems: Team members will restore the affected system(s) to the uninfected state. They may do any or more of the following:

  • Re-install the affected system(s) from scratch and restore data from backups if necessary. Preserve evidence before doing this.

  • Make users change passwords if passwords may have been sniffed.

  • Be sure the system has been hardened by turning off or uninstalling unused services.

  • Be sure the system is fully patched.

  • Be sure real time virus protection and intrusion detection is running.

  • Be sure the system is logging the correct events and to the proper level.

13. Documentation—the following shall be documented:

  • How the incident was discovered.

  • The category of the incident.

  • How the incident occurred, whether through email, firewall, etc.

  • Where the attack came from, such as IP addresses and other related information about the attacker.

  • What the response plan was.

  • What was done in response?

  • Whether the response was effective.

14. Evidence Preservation—make copies of logs, email, and other communication. Keep lists of witnesses. Keep evidence as long as necessary to complete prosecution and beyond in case of an appeal.

15. Notify proper external agencies—notify the police and other appropriate agencies if prosecution of the intruder is possible. List the agencies and contact numbers here.

16. Assess damage and cost—assess the damage to the organization and estimate both the damage cost and the cost of the containment efforts.

17. Review response and update policies—plan and take preventative steps so the intrusion can’t happen again.
Consider whether an additional policy could have prevented the intrusion.

  • Consider whether a procedure or policy was not followed which allowed the intrusion, and then consider what could be changed to ensure that the procedure or policy is followed in the future.Was the incident response appropriate? How could it be improved?

  • Was every appropriate party informed in a timely manner?

  • Were the incident-response procedures detailed and did they cover the entire situation? How can they be improved?

  • Have changes been made to prevent a re-infection? Have all systems been patched, systems locked down, passwords changed, anti-virus updated, email policies set, etc.?

  • Have changes been made to prevent a new and similar infection?

  • Should any security policies be updated?

  • What lessons have been learned from this experience?

Waivers

Waivers from certain policy provisions may be sought following the (Company) Waiver Process.


Enforcement

Personnel found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, and related civil or criminal penalties.

Any vendor, consultant, or contractor found to have violated this policy may be subject to sanctions up to and including removal of access rights, termination of contract(s), and related civil or criminal penalties.