If you are now writing an incident response plan, you may be thinking of adding an incident response plan flow chart. Well, of course, this helps! Why? Let us know the reasons below.
But first, let us have a quick recap about incident response planning.
What is Incident Response Planning?
Incident response planning is the a process of identifying and prioritizing possible threats to the organization. And the ways on how to respond to such threats.
The process contains the following several steps:
There are several documents that you need to create during the incident response planning phase. Such as an incident response plan flow chart, an incident response plan template, an incident response team roster, etc. These documents will be useful when you implement the plan.
Why Include an Incident Response Plan Flow Chart in Your Incident Response Plan?
An incident response plan flow chart with all its components and activities will help you and the rest of the members of the team to understand the needs, in case of an actual security incident.
Why is it important?
This is important because even if you have listed all activities in your security incident response plan template. Perhaps chances are that if there’s a real attack or security incident, you or at least some members of your team will forget some things.
Perhaps, this may result in miscommunication. Which may also cause improper handling of the whole situation.
But with this flow chart, you can easily identify which actions are next to be done after another action is completed. And this will make sure that everyone will know what they need to do. And this will make sure that everyone knows what they are supposed to do if there’s an actual attack or security breach.
Why Organizations Should Include an Effective Flowchart
We’ve already discussed how important it is for organizations to have an effective incident response plan. Now let us discuss why it is important for organizations to have an effective flow chart part of their security incident response plan templates.
Here are some reasons why you should include this component in your IRP:
- A flow chart can help you identify which processes are more prone to errors. By using this tool, it will be easier for you to determine which processes are more prone to errors so that you can fix them before any security incident happens. Remember, prevention is always better than cure!
- Any security incidents can cost your company a lot of money so your company must respond immediately and effectively. Without an effective flowchart, it may take longer for you or your company’s security personnel to respond properly especially if they do not know what they should do next after completing a certain activity.
- A flow chart can help you and your team to understand the overall process. By using a flow chart, not only will you and your team be able to know what needs to be done, but you will also be able to grasp the whole process of how to respond properly to a security incident.