3.6 Incident Response

Statement

Establish and maintain a security operations center.

Guidance

A security operations center (SOC) is the focal point for security operations and computer network defense for an organization. The purpose of the SOC is to defend and monitor an organization’s systems and networks on an ongoing basis. The SOC is also responsible for detecting, analyzing, and responding to security incidents in a timely manner. The SOC is staffed with skilled technical and operational personnel (e.g., security analysts, incident response personnel, systems security engineers) and implements a combination of technical, management, and operational controls (including monitoring, scanning, and forensics tools) to monitor, fuse, correlate, analyze, and respond to threat and security-relevant event data from multiple sources. These sources include perimeter defenses, network devices (e.g., routers, switches), and endpoint agent data feeds. The SOC provides a holistic situational awareness capability to help organizations determine the security posture of the system and organization. A SOC capability can be obtained in a variety of ways. Larger organizations may implement a dedicated SOC, while smaller organizations may employ third-party organizations to provide this capability. This requirement enhances SP 800-171 requirement 03.06.01.

Statement

• (includes shorten and reduce) Restrict the consequences of realized threat events by limiting the damage or effects they cause in terms of time, system resources, and/or mission or business impacts.

  • Reduce level of impact and reduce likelihood of impact of subsequent events in the same threat scenario.

  • The adversary’s effectiveness is restricted.

• (includes detect and reveal) Reduce risk due to ignorance of threat events and possible replicated or similar threat events in the same or similar environments.

  • Reduce likelihood of impact.

  • The adversary loses the advantage of stealth as defenders are better prepared by developing and sharing threat intelligence.

Assessment objective

a security operations center is established.

Assessment objective

a security operations center is maintained.

Assessment method

• Incident response policy contingency planning policy procedures addressing incident handling procedures addressing the security operations center operations mechanisms supporting dynamic response capabilities system security plan contingency plan incident response plan other relevant documents or records

Assessment method

• Personnel with incident handling responsibilities personnel with information security responsibilities security operations center personnel personnel with contingency planning responsibilities

Assessment method

• Mechanisms that support and/or implement the security operations center capability mechanisms that support and/or implement the incident handling process

Statement

Establish and maintain an integrated incident response team that can be deployed to any location identified by the organization in {{ insert: param, A.03.06.02E.ODP.01 }}.

Guidance

An integrated incident response team is a group of individuals who assess, document, and respond to incidents so that organizational systems and networks can recover quickly and implement the necessary controls to avoid future incidents. Incident response team personnel include forensic and malicious code analysts, tool developers, systems security engineers, and real-time operations personnel. The incident handling capability includes performing rapid forensic preservation of evidence and analysis of and response to intrusions. An integrated incident response team facilitates information sharing and allows organizational personnel (e.g., developers, implementers, and operators) to leverage team knowledge of the threat and implement defensive measures that enable organizations to deter intrusions more effectively. Moreover, integrated teams promote the rapid detection of intrusions, the development of appropriate mitigations, and the deployment of effective defensive measures. Integrated incident response teams are better able to identify adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures that are linked to the operations tempo or specific mission and business functions and to define responsive actions in a way that does not disrupt those mission and business functions. Incident response teams can be distributed within organizations to make the capability resilient. For some organizations, the incident response team can be a cross-organizational entity. This requirement enhances SP 800-171 requirement 03.06.01.

Statement

• (includes expunge) Ensure that the threat event does not have an impact.

  • Reduce likelihood of occurrence and/or reduce likelihood of impact.

  • The adversary’s efforts or resources cannot be applied or are wasted.

• (includes contain and exert) Make it more difficult for threat events to cause adverse impacts or consequences.

  • Reduce likelihood of impact and reduce level of impact.

  • Adversary activities are restricted in scope, fail to achieve full effect, do not take place in accordance with adversary timeline, or require greater resources than adversary had planned.

• (includes shorten and reduce) Restrict the consequences of realized threat events by limiting the damage or effects they cause in terms of time, system resources, and/or mission or business impacts.

  • Reduce level of impact and reduce likelihood of impact of subsequent events in the same threat scenario.

  • The adversary’s effectiveness is restricted.

• (includes scrutinize) Reduce risk due to ignorance of threat events and possible replicated or similar threat events in the same or similar environments.

  • Reduce likelihood of impact.

  • The adversary loses the advantage of stealth as defenders are better prepared by developing and sharing threat intelligence.

Assessment objective

an integrated incident response team is established.

Assessment objective

an integrated incident response team is maintained.

Assessment objective

the integrated incident response team can be deployed to any location identified by the organization in {{ insert: param, A.03.06.02E.ODP.01 }}.

Assessment method

• Incident response policy procedures addressing incident handling procedures addressing incident response planning incident response plan system security plan other relevant documents or records

Assessment method

• Personnel with incident handling responsibilities personnel with information security responsibilities members of the integrated incident response team

Statement

Analyze anomalous or suspected adversarial behavior in or related to {{ insert: param, A.03.06.03E.ODP.01 }}.

Guidance

If the organization maintains a deception environment, an analysis of behaviors in that environment, including resources targeted by the adversary and the timing of the incident or event, can provide significant insights into adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures. External to a deception environment, the analysis of anomalous behavior (e.g., changes in system performance or usage patterns) or suspected adversarial behavior (e.g., changes in searches for the location of specific resources) can give the organization such insight. This requirement enhances SP 800-171 requirement 03.06.01.

Statement

• (includes detect and reveal) Reduce risk due to ignorance of threat events and possible replicated or similar threat events in the same or similar environments.

  • Reduce likelihood of impact.

  • The adversary loses the advantage of stealth as defenders are better prepared by developing and sharing threat intelligence.

Assessment objective

anomalous or suspected adversarial behavior in or related to {{ insert: param, A.03.06.03E.ODP.01 }} is analyzed.

Assessment method

• Incident response policy procedures addressing system monitoring tools and techniques incident response plan system monitoring logs or records system monitoring tools and techniques documentation system configuration settings and associated documentation system security plan system component inventory network diagram system protocols documentation list of acceptable thresholds for false positives and false negatives other relevant documents or records

Assessment method

• Personnel with information security responsibilities system/network administrators

Assessment method

• Processes for detecting anomalous behavior

Statement

Track incidents and collect and analyze incident information using {{ insert: param, A.03.06.04E_prm_1 }}.

Guidance

Automated mechanisms for tracking incidents and collecting and analyzing incident information include electronic databases of incidents and network monitoring devices. This requirement enhances SP 800-171 requirement 03.06.02.

Statement

• (includes detect and reveal) Reduce risk due to ignorance of threat events and possible replicated or similar threat events in the same or similar environments.

  • Reduce likelihood of impact.

  • The adversary loses the advantage of stealth as defenders are better prepared by developing and sharing threat intelligence.

Assessment objective

incidents are tracked using {{ insert: param, A.03.06.04E.ODP.01 }}.

Assessment objective

incident information is collected using {{ insert: param, A.03.06.04E.ODP.02 }}.

Assessment objective

incident information is analyzed using {{ insert: param, A.03.06.04E.ODP.03 }}.

Assessment method

• Incident response policy procedures addressing incident monitoring incident response records and documentation system security plan incident response plan other relevant documents or records

Assessment method

• Personnel with incident monitoring responsibilities personnel with information security responsibilities

Assessment method

• Incident monitoring capability for the organization automated mechanisms supporting and/or implementing the tracking and documenting of system security incidents