Quarterbacks have a playbook. Actors have a script. But school IT departments? They have an incident response plan.
Or, at least, they should, according to K12 SIX — the country’s only nonprofit dedicated solely to K-12 cybersecurity. Why? Because school districts are processing loads of sensitive information. We’re talking about the type of data that malicious cybercriminals would love to get their hands on. And once they do, there’s no telling what can happen.
Suffice to say, incident response planning is becoming increasingly essential for your school district. But what, exactly, is an incident response plan? How does it work, and how do you build one?
In this guide, we’ll answer these questions and show you everything you need to create, test, and execute a solid incident response plan in your district.
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), incident response planning refers to the documentation of a predetermined set of instructions for detecting, responding to, and limiting the consequences of a cyber incident.
In simpler terms, it’s a playbook for how your district’s IT department should manage a data breach or leak, should one occur. Think of it a bit like a lesson plan: Similar to how a teacher maps out their daily lesson from start to finish, your security team should also map out the steps it must take to mitigate a cyberattack.
Generally, the point of an incident response plan is to keep your school district prepared for the inevitable risk. If you’re caught off guard by an incident, chances are you’ll have a tougher time organizing an effective response.
A solid incident response plan typically includes the following information:
In 2012, the SANS Institute published a white paper that outlined the six essential phases of the incident response lifecycle. Today, it’s still considered the gold standard and used by countless cybersecurity professionals around the world.
Let’s take a look at the six-step framework:
Now that you know the basics, let’s get started building your own incident response plan. To speed up the process, here are some best practices to keep in mind:
Lastly, it may be a good idea to use an incident response template to get off the ground. K12 SIX, for instance, has a special template based on NIST guidelines designed specifically for K-12 school districts. Check it out here.
The first three phases of the process are usually what makes or breaks a response’s success. Schools — which don’t usually have the same resources as enterprise-level security teams — need to make do with what they have. This might mean a small team of technicians who may or may not have cybersecurity expertise.
To bridge the gap, schools can use a cloud security platform to monitor their cloud domain. With a tool like ManagedMethods, districts can automatically detect unseen risks and rapidly take action. In combination with a solid response plan, ManagedMethods empowers schools to respond as quickly and effectively as possible.