Data Breach Incident Response Plan: University of Hertfordshire

This report details an incident response plan designed to address a data breach within the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire. The plan emphasizes a coordinated, strategic, and multidisciplinary approach to manage the incident effectively. It identifies potential data breach targets, including personal information, intellectual property, and financial data, and outlines the associated threats and consequences. The report highlights the importance of a well-defined incident response plan in determining the scope of the breach, identifying affected systems, and guiding the investigation. It includes details on the roles of key personnel like the CISO, the composition of the incident response team, and the actions to be taken in response to the breach, such as assessment, legal advice, evidence preservation, and security audits. The report also provides recommendations for improving security, including incorporating cybersecurity into discussions, implementing mechanisms to counter breaches, and auditing existing security controls. Furthermore, it suggests strategies for leveraging data and analytics to improve business solutions using the Six Sigma methodology.

Incident Response Plan for
Data Breach Incident
Name of the Student
Name of the University

Background
 The Department of Computer Science at the University
of Hertfordshire faces a data breach incident.
 The breach of data is focused at stealing critical data
assets.
 The data breach involves the loss of vital data of the
industry.

Data Breach Management
 The department should prepare their strategies in advance
for dealing with the incident.
 A co-ordinated, strategic and multi-disciplinary approach
should be implemented (Soomro, Shah and Ahmed 2016).
 This ensures an efficient, effective and customer-focused
incident response plan.

Data Breach Targets
 Personal Identifiable Information
 Intellectual Property of the organisation
 Competitive Information
 Legal Information
 IT Security Data
 Financial Information

Data Breach Threats
 Internal data of the organisation would be put at stake.
 External mail accounts and cloud backed-up data would
be hacked primarily.
 Internal employees could leak sensitive data
 Malicious websites could be used for installation of
malware on employee computers.

Data Breach Consequences
 The data breach leaves a tremendous bad reputation for
the organisation.
 The pre-planned financial information would be put at
stake (Peters 2014).
 Educational strategies and pre-planned discussions
would be widely revealed.

Importance of Incident Response
Plan
 The plan would determine the scope and nature of the
incident.
 It would identify the type of information and the
affected systems.
 This plan would review the preliminary details needed
for the progress of investigation.

Details of Incident Response Service
(Fig 1: The Entire Incident Response Service)
(Source: Ruefle et al. 2014)

The Role of CISO
 A preliminary analysis based on assets and facts should be
evaluated.
 They would contact the head of the department and
conduct a thorough check on the affected systems
(Collette, Gentile and August 2016).
 Based on third party locations, there would be a need for
legal contract.

Preparing for the Data Breach
 Identification of the ways in which the breach had
happened.
 A detailed solutions should be forwarded to the security
team.
 Notifying the top officials within the department.
 Notifying of external agencies about the breach

Build of Incident Response Team
The team Members involved within the incident response
team includes:
 Team of Executive Management
 Risk Management and Security
 Audit and Compliance
 Legacy and Privacy
 Public Relations

Hierarchy of Incident Response Team
(Fig 1: Hierarchy of the Entire Incident Response Team)
(Source: Ruefle et al. 2014)