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Printable Version: RFC1244.PDF
RFC 1244 Site Security Handbook July 1991
5.1.1 Have a Plan to Follow in Case of an Incident
Part of handling an incident is being prepared to respond before
the incident occurs. This includes establishing a suitable level
of protections, so that if the incident becomes severe, the damage
which can occur is limited. Protection includes preparing
incident handling guidelines or a contingency response plan for
your organization or site. Having written plans eliminates much
of the ambiguity which occurs during an incident, and will lead to
a more appropriate and thorough set of responses. Second, part of
protection is preparing a method of notification, so you will know
who to call and the relevant phone numbers. It is important, for
example, to conduct "dry runs," in which your computer security
personnel, system administrators, and managers simulate handling
an incident.
Learning to respond efficiently to an incident is important for
numerous reasons. The most important benefit is directly to human
beings--preventing loss of human life. Some computing systems are
life critical systems, systems on which human life depends (e.g.,
by controlling some aspect of life-support in a hospital or
assisting air traffic controllers).
An important but often overlooked benefit is an economic one.
Having both technical and managerial personnel respond to an
incident requires considerable resources, resources which could be
utilized more profitably if an incident did not require their
services. If these personnel are trained to handle an incident
efficiently, less of their time is required to deal with that
incident.
A third benefit is protecting classified, sensitive, or
proprietary information. One of the major dangers of a computer
security incident is that information may be irrecoverable.
Efficient incident handling minimizes this danger. When
classified information is involved, other government regulations
may apply and must be integrated into any plan for incident
handling.
A fourth benefit is related to public relations. News about
computer security incidents tends to be damaging to an
organization's stature among current or potential clients.
Efficient incident handling minimizes the potential for negative
exposure.
A final benefit of efficient incident handling is related to legal
issues. It is possible that in the near future organizations may
be sued because one of their nodes was used to launch a network
Site Security Policy Handbook Working Group [Page 62]