System Restoration, Recovery Planning, and Business Continuity Considerations

Lesson 27/35 | Study Time: 20 Min

Course: ISO 27035 Information Security Incident Manager Course

System restoration, recovery planning, and business continuity are integral components of a comprehensive incident response strategy. After containing and eradicating security threats, organizations must focus on restoring affected systems to normal operation swiftly and securely.

Recovery planning ensures structured steps are in place to resume essential services with minimal downtime, while business continuity considerations guarantee that critical business functions continue despite incidents.

Together, these efforts minimize operational disruption, financial loss, and reputational damage.

System Restoration

System restoration involves returning compromised systems and data to their trusted, operational state after an incident.

1. Assess System Integrity: Verify the systems are free from malware or unauthorized modifications using forensic and validation tools.

2. Restore from Trusted Backups: Utilize secure backup copies to recover lost or corrupted data and system configurations, ensuring backup integrity.

3. Rebuild and Reconfigure: When necessary, rebuild systems from clean images, reinstall software, and apply security patches and hardening measures.

4. Testing and Validation: Conduct functional and security tests to confirm systems operate normally and are secure before reconnecting to the production environment.

Recovery Planning

Recovery planning delineates detailed procedures and resources required to expedite return to business-as-usual.Business Continuity Considerations

Business continuity extends beyond IT recovery to maintain essential organizational operations throughout and after an incident.

1. Business Impact Analysis (BIA): Identify critical business functions, dependencies, and allowable downtime to guide continuity strategies.

2. Alternate Work Locations and Remote Work: Establish capabilities for employees to access systems and perform duties from alternate or remote locations.

3. Redundancy and Failover: Design infrastructure with redundancies such as backup data centers, cloud failover, and scalable resources.

4. Communication Plans: Maintain effective internal and external communication with customers, suppliers, regulators, and employees during disruptions.

5. Continuous Improvement: Integrate lessons from incident response and recovery into business continuity plans for enhanced resilience.

Best Practices

1. Maintain regular, secure backups with offsite or cloud storage.

2. Align recovery objectives with business priorities for maximum impact reduction.

3. Continually update plans to reflect organizational growth and threat landscape changes.

4. Emphasize cross-functional teamwork between IT, business units, and management in continuity strategy.

5. Document and review recovery and continuity processes post-incident for continuous improvement.

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Scott Hamilton

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1- Definition and Significance of Information Security Incidents 2- Types of Security Incidents and Threat Landscape Overview 3- Incident Management Objectives and Benefits 4- Overview of Relevant Standards: ISO/IEC 27035 and Alignment with ISO/IEC 27001 5- Roles and Responsibilities of an Information Security Incident Manager 6- Incident Management Lifecycle Phases 7- Developing and Implementing Incident Management Policies and Procedures 8- Establishing Governance and Organizational Support 9- Incident Classification and Prioritization Techniques 10- Stakeholder Identification and Communication Planning 11- Building an Incident Response Team and Defining Roles 12- Tools, Technologies, and Resources for Incident Management 13- Incident Readiness: Training, Awareness, and Simulation Exercises 14- Establishing Incident Detection and Reporting Mechanisms 15- Coordination with External Entities (Law Enforcement, Vendors, CERTs) 16- Methods and Technologies for Incident Detection and Monitoring (SIEM, IDS/IPS, Logs) 17- Incident Validation and Initial Assessment Techniques 18- Root Cause Analysis and Forensic Considerations 19- Documentation and Evidence Handling Procedures 20- Escalation Processes and Decision Making 21- Strategies for Incident Containment and Mitigation 22- Communication and Coordination During Incident Response 23- Managing Resources and Response Teams Effectively 24- Handling Multiple Concurrent Incidents 25- Documentation and Tracking of Response Actions 26- Eradication Techniques and Removal of Threats 27- System Restoration, Recovery Planning, and Business Continuity Considerations 28- Post-Incident Review and Lessons Learned Workshops 29- Reporting and Compliance Obligations 30- Continuous Improvement and Updating Incident Management Policies 31- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Incident Management Programs 32- Incident Trend Analysis and Reporting Techniques 33- Internal and External Reporting Requirements 34- Conducting Audits and Maturity Assessments 35- Lessons Learned Integration and Feedback Loops to Improve Processes

System Restoration, Recovery Planning, and Business Continuity Considerations

Best Practices

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