Network Security: Incident Response, Business Continuity, Data Breach, and Encryption

Running head: NETWORK SECURITY
Network Security
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Answer to Question 1..........................................................................................................2
Answer to Question 5..........................................................................................................8
References..........................................................................................................................10

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Answer to Question 1
a) Incident response is an approach for addressing and managing a security breach or a cyber
attack. The goal of the incident response plan is to handle a situation (cyber security attack or
data breach) in such a way that the damages caused by an attack can be limited thus reducing the
recovery time and costs (Whitman, Mattord & Green, 2013). The incident response activities
should be conducted by Big Data Corporation’s computer security incident response team lead
by senior network security engineer (Ahmad, Maynard & Shanks, 2015). It is essential to
develop an incident response plan as responding to an incident quickly helps in minimizing the
losses of the company and further helps in mitigating the vulnerabilities exploited by the incident
response plan. Therefore, an incident response plan will help BigData Corporation to be prepared
for any unknown as well as any known method of identifying a security breach or a cyber
security attack.
The procedure of incident response that will be followed in BigData Corporation is
discussed in the following paragraphs-
The very first step of an incident response is to prepare a plan for the incident response.
This plan is important to test the company’s ability to respond to a security incident so that the
business damage can be reduced (Torres, 2014). The first step of developing an incident response
plan is to address the different business issues and assign roles to different individuals for
addressing the situation during a disaster. It is critically important to understand a business in
order to develop an incident response and a disaster recovery plan. It is foremost essential to
identify the risks associated with the company as an incident response plan is most likely to be
subjective. Therefore it is essential to monitor the key performance indicators to identify the

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areas of risks present in the organization so that it is possible to design an incident response plan
effectively. The final and the most significant steps of developing an incident response plan is
stress test the incident response plan that is developed. Testing is necessary as it unveils the
loopholes in the plan. Testing further ensures that a working plan is ready in times of need.
While preparing an incident response plan, it is needed to analyze the operating
environment of the company. The incident response plan should be related to the IT
infrastructure of the organization. It is essential to build a solid team so that the incident response
plan can be implemented effectively (Bada et al., 2014). After preparing the incident response
plan, it is essential to create quick response guides so that the incident response can be
effectively implemented in times of need.
The above discussed points are some basic steps that are recommended for the BigData
Corporation to develop the incident response plan. Since it is an IT service company, it is
essential to develop an incident response plan as an IR plan helps in easier disaster recovery. The
incident response procedures that will be followed in organization have to be well planned so
that it is able to serve its purpose.
b) Business continuity is one of the most significant factors for getting success in ICT industry.
Business continuity plan helps in ensuring that a business process can continue even during the
times of emergency or disaster (Sahebjamnia, Torabi & Mansouri, 2015). The factors that are
needed to be considered while preparing the business continuity plan including the disaster
recovery plan are as follows-
While developing a business continuity plan, it is essential to set a maximum tolerable
downtime by estimating the maximum number of worst case scenario. Identification of the