Contingency Planning

Objectives Upon completion of this material, you should be able to: Recognize the need for contingency planning Describe the major components of contingency planning Create a simple set of contingency plans, using business impact analysis Prepare and execute a test of contingency plans Explain the combined contingency plan approach http://rchrd.com/weblog/archives/archive_2005-m07.php

Introduction Planning for the unexpected event is the focus of this chapter When the use of technology is disrupted and business operations come close to a standstill Procedures are required to permit the organization to continue essential functions if information technology support is interrupted Over 40% of businesses that don't have a disaster plan go out of business after a major loss Planning for what you do when something goes wrong. Such as for a flat tire (spare and jack), major medical event (insurance and hospital number), serious accident (first-aid class), etc.

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning Contingency planning (CP) The overall planning for unexpected events Involves preparing for, detecting, reacting to, and recovering from events that threaten the security of information resources and assets Main goal The restoration to normal modes of operation with minimum cost and disruption to normal business activities after an unexpected event

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning (cont’d.) Incident response planning (IRP) Focuses on immediate response Disaster recovery planning (DRP) Focuses on restoring operations at the primary site after disasters occur Business continuity planning (BCP) Facilitates establishment of operations at an alternate site

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning (cont’d.) To ensure continuity across all of the CP processes, contingency planners should Identify the mission- or business-critical functions and the resources that support them Anticipate potential contingencies or disasters Select contingency planning strategies Implement the selected strategy Test and revise contingency plans

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning (cont’d.) Develop the contingency planning policy statement Provides the authority and guidance necessary to develop an effective contingency plan Conduct the BIA Helps to identify and prioritize critical IT systems and components Policies are always the starting point – from then derives authority for other procedures and/or programs.

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning (cont’d.) Identify preventive controls Measures taken to reduce the effects of system disruptions can increase system availability and reduce contingency life cycle costs Develop recovery strategies Ensure that the system may be recovered quickly and effectively following a disruption Preventative controls could include firewalls, backups, uninterruptable power supplies, etc.

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning (cont.) Develop an IT contingency plan Contains detailed guidance and procedures for restoring a damaged system Plan testing, training, and exercises Testing the plan identifies planning gaps Training prepares recovery personnel for plan activation Both activities improve plan effectiveness and overall agency preparedness Plans must be tested – when a contingency occurs is not the time to find out there is a flaw in the plan.

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning (cont.) Plan maintenance The plan should be updated regularly to remain current with system enhancements

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning (cont’d.) Elements of a contingency planning policy statement An introductory statement of philosophical perspective by senior management A statement of the scope and purpose of the CP operations A call for periodic risk assessment and business impact analysis by the CP Team Risk assessment and BIA must be done periodically as the risk environment and system specifics evolve.

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning (cont’d.) Elements of a contingency planning policy statement (cont’d.) A specification of the major components of the CP A call for, and guidance in, the selection of recovery options and business continuity strategies A requirement to test the various plans on a regular basis

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning (cont’d.) Elements of a contingency planning policy statement (cont’d.) Identification of key regulations and standards that impact CP planning and a brief overview of their relevancy Identification of key individuals responsible for CP operations A challenge to the individual members of the organizations Additional administrative information

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning (cont’d.) Four teams are involved in contingency planning and contingency operations The CP team The incident recovery (IR) team The disaster recovery (DR) team The business continuity plan (BC) team

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning (cont’d.) The CP team should include Champion Project Manager Team Members Business managers Information technology managers Information security managers The 3 communities of interest.

Fundamentals of Contingency Planning (cont’d.) NIST describes the need for this type of planning as: “These procedures (contingency plans, business interruption plans, and continuity of operations plans) should be coordinated with the backup, contingency, and recovery plans of any general support systems, including networks used by the application. The contingency plans should ensure that interfacing systems are identified and contingency/disaster planning coordinated.”

Components of Contingency Planning Figure 3-1 Contingency planning hierarchies Source: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

NIST Contingency Planning Guide for Information Technology Systems instructions, recommendations and considerations for government IT contingency planning recommendations for 7 platform types Desktops and portable systems Servers Web sites Local-area networks Wide-area networks Distributed systems Mainframe systems

NIST Contingency Planning Guide for Information Technology Systems Seven-step contingency process designed to be integrated into each phase of the system development life cycle

NIST Contingency Planning Guide for Information Technology Systems Develop contingency planning policy statement Conduct business impact analysis (BIA) Identify preventative controls Develop recovery strategies Develop an IT contingency plan Testing, training and exercises Plan maintenance

NIST Contingency Planning Guide for Information Technology Systems Three phases that govern actions following system disruption Notification/Activation Notifying recovery personnel and performing damage assessment Recovery Restore IT operations at alternate site or using contingency capabilities Reconstitution Actions taken to restore system to normal operation

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Provides the CP team with information about systems and the threats they face Second phase in the CP process A crucial component of the initial planning stages Provides detailed scenarios of each potential attack’s impact

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) BIA is not risk management (which focuses on identifying threats, vulnerabilities, and attacks to determine controls) BIA assumes controls have been bypassed or are ineffective, and attack was successful BIA looks at costs of a successful attack.

Business Impact Analysis (cont’d.) Figure 3-2 Major tasks in contingency planning Source: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

Business Impact Analysis (cont’d.) The CP team conducts the BIA in the following stages: Threat attack identification Business unit analysis Attack success scenarios Potential damage assessment Subordinate plan classification http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=2954&picture=business

Business Impact Analysis (cont’d.) An organization that uses a risk management process will have identified and prioritized threats Update threat list and add one additional piece of information - the attack profile An attack profile is a detailed description of activities that occur during an attack The second major BIA task is the analysis and prioritization of business functions within the organization Since different business functions may run on different systems, it is possible to determine and prioritize impact separately. For example, impact on a Web server used in marketing versus impact on an internal network used for production. http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=10876&picture=business-district

Table 3-1 Example attack profile Source: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

Business Impact Analysis (cont’d.) Create a series of scenarios depicting impact of successful attack on each functional area Attack profiles should include scenarios depicting typical attack including: Methodology Indicators Broad consequences Add alternate outcomes Best case, worst case, and most likely http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=4141&picture=three-business-men

Business Impact Analysis (cont’d.) Estimate the cost of the best, worst, and most likely outcomes By preparing an attack scenario end case Allows identification of what must be done to recover from each possible case http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=10562&picture=business-time

Business Impact Analysis (cont’d.) A related plan must be developed or identified from among existing plans already in place Each attack scenario end case is categorized as disastrous or not Attack end cases that are disastrous find members of the organization waiting out the attack, and planning to recover after it is over http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=2641&picture=business-word

Incident Response Plan A detailed set of processes and procedures that anticipate, detect, and mitigate the impact of an unexpected event that might compromise information resources and assets Procedures commence when an incident is detected http://www.freefoto.com/preview/28-18-12/Lexington-Fire-Department

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) When a threat becomes a valid attack, it is classified as an information security incident if: It is directed against information assets It has a realistic chance of success It threatens the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of information assets Incident response is a reactive measure, not a preventative one But the irony is that an IRP is a plan for what you do in response to something happening. It is a proactive plan for a reactive measure. ;-) http://www.flickr.com/photos/nic/137592478/

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Planners develop and document the procedures that must be performed during the incident These procedures are grouped and assigned to various roles The planning committee drafts a set of function-specific procedures Planning is important because often complex functions must be performed in a very timely manner – such as might be used to gather forensics data for use in later analysis of an attack method. http://www.yourbdnews.com/2011/05/12/ten-die-and-dozens-injured-as-earthquakes-hit-spanish-town/earthquake-in-spain

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Planners develop and document the procedures that must be performed immediately after the incident has ceased Separate functional areas may develop different procedures http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=3234&picture=harbor-fire-vessel

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Develop procedures for tasks that must be performed in advance of the incident Details of data backup schedules Disaster recovery preparation Training schedules Testing plans Copies of service agreements Business continuity plans Doing as much in advance as possible will greatly improve the efficiency of your IRP when it becomes necessary. http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=11953&picture=lifebuoy-container

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Figure 3-3 Incident response planning Source: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Planning requires a detailed understanding of the information systems and the threats they face The IR planning team seeks to develop pre-defined responses that guide users through the steps needed to respond to an incident Enables rapid reaction without confusion or wasted time and effort Typically done after a risk assessment and risk analysis are completed.

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Incident classification Determine whether an event is an actual incident May be challenging Uses initial reports from end users, intrusion detection systems, host- and network-based virus detection software, and systems administrators Careful training allows everyone to relay vital information to the IR team A spike in network traffic, as detected by an IDS, might be an incident or it might be a team working extra hard to get a new product out the door.

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Possible indicators Presence of unfamiliar files Presence or execution of unknown programs or processes Unusual consumption of computing resources Unusual system crashes These could indicate malware, hacker intrusion, network hijacking.

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Probable indicators Activities at unexpected times Presence of new accounts Reported attacks Notification from IDS However – note that it is not always possible to automate these detections. This is why typically an IDS will send a report to a human manager for final determination.

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Definite indicators Use of dormant accounts Changes to logs Presence of hacker tools Notifications by partner or peer Notification by hacker These are fairly obvious…

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Occurrences of actual incidents When these occur, the corresponding IR must be immediately activated Loss of availability Loss of integrity Loss of confidentiality Violation of policy Violation of law Any delay in activation of the IR can lead to these losses. A good IR, properly activated, can protect from liability.

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Once an actual incident has been confirmed and properly classified IR team moves from the detection phase to the reaction phase A number of action steps must occur quickly and may occur concurrently These steps include notification of key personnel, the assignment of tasks, and documentation of the incident http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=7656&picture=telecom-antennas

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Alert roster A document containing contact information on the individuals to be notified in the event of an actual incident either sequentially or hierarchically The alert message is a scripted description of the incident Other key personnel must be notified of the incident after the incident has been confirmed, but before media or other external sources learn of it Alert roster could be via beeper, SMS, email, etc. Today many use SMS alerts on a cell phone.

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Documentation Begins once an incident has been confirmed and the notification process is underway Record the who, what, when, where, why and how of each action taken during the incident Serves as a case study after the fact to determine if the right actions were taken, and if they were effective Can also prove the organization did everything possible to deter the spread of the incident This can protect against lawsuit for negligence.

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) The essential task of IR is to stop the incident or contain its impact Incident containment strategies focus on two tasks Stopping the incident Recovering control of the systems May involve temporary measures just until control is reestablished.

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Containment strategies Disconnect the affected communication circuits Dynamically apply filtering rules to limit certain types of network access Disabling compromised user accounts Reconfiguring firewalls to block the problem traffic Temporarily disabling the compromised process or service

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Containment strategies (cont’d.) Taking down the conduit application or server Stopping all computers and network devices Rerrouting incoming traffic to a ‘sinkhole’ (in case of DDOS attack)

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) An incident may increase in scope or severity to the point that the IRP cannot adequately contain the incident Each organization will have to determine, during the business impact analysis, the point at which the incident becomes a disaster The organization must also document when to involve outside response

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Once contained and system control regained, incident recovery can begin The IR team must assess the full extent of the damage in order to determine what must be done to restore the systems Incident damage assessment Determination of the scope of the breach of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information and information assets

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Those who document the damage must be trained to collect and preserve evidence, in case the incident is part of a crime or results in a civil action This may involve the computer forensics group. (evidence of storage alteration, server logs, firewall and IDS logs, etc.)

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Recovery process Identify the vulnerabilities that allowed the incident to occur and spread and resolve them Address the safeguards that failed to stop or limit the incident, or were missing from the system in the first place and install, replace or upgrade them Evaluate monitoring capabilities (if present) to improve detection and reporting methods, or install new monitoring capabilities Recovery must involve learning, lest you be destined to re-live the incident.

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Recovery process (cont’d.) Restore the data from backups as needed Restore the services and processes in use where compromised (and interrupted) services and processes must be examined, cleaned, and then restored Continuously monitor the system Restore the confidence of the members of the organization’s communities of interest

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Before returning to routine duties, the IR team must conduct an after-action review (AAR) A detailed examination of the events that occurred All team members review their actions during the incident and identify areas where the IR plan worked, didn’t work, or should improve

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) When an incident violates civil or criminal law, it is the organization’s responsibility to notify the proper authorities Selecting the appropriate law enforcement agency depends on the type of crime committed: Federal, State, or local In some cases failure to notify proper authorities could open the organization itself to prosecution or could compromise the investigation.

Incident Response Plan (cont’d.) Involving law enforcement has both advantages and disadvantages They are usually much better equipped at processing evidence, obtaining statements from witnesses, and building legal cases However, involvement can result in loss of control of the chain of events following an incident

Disaster Recovery Plan The preparation for and recovery from a disaster, whether natural or man made In general, an incident is a disaster when: The organization is unable to contain or control the impact of an incident, or The level of damage or destruction from an incident is so severe the organization is unable to quickly recover

Disaster Recovery Plan (cont’d.) The key role of a DRP is defining how to reestablish operations at the location where the organization is usually located

Disaster Recovery Plan (cont’d.) A DRP can classify disasters in a number of ways The most common method is to separate natural disasters from man-made disasters Another way of classifying disasters is by speed of development Rapid onset disasters Slow onset disasters

Disaster Recovery Plan (cont’d.) Scenario development and impact analysis Used to categorize the level of threat of each potential disaster DRP must be tested regularly Key points in the DRP Clear delegation of roles and responsibilities Execution of the alert roster and notification of key personnel

Disaster Recovery Plan (cont’d.) Key points in the DRP (cont’d.) Clear establishment of priorities Documentation of the disaster Action steps to mitigate the impact Alternative implementations for the various systems components

Disaster Recovery Plan (cont’d.) Actual events often outstrip even the best of plans To be prepared, DRP should be flexible If physical facilities are intact, begin restoration If organization’s facilities are unusable, take alternative actions When disaster threatens the organization at the primary site, DRP becomes BCP

Business Continuity Plan Ensures critical business functions can continue in a disaster Managed by CEO of the organization Activated and executed concurrently with the DRP when needed While BCP reestablishes critical functions at alternate site, DRP focuses on reestablishment at the primary site

Business Continuity Plan (cont’d.) Relies on identification of critical business functions and the resources to support them Continuity strategies Exclusive-use options: hot, warm and cold sites Shared-use options: timeshare, service bureaus, mutual agreements Determining factor is usually cost

Business Continuity Plan (cont’d.) Hot Sites Fully configured computer facility with all services Warm Sites Like hot site, but software applications not kept fully prepared Cold Sites Only rudimentary services and facilities kept in readiness

Business Continuity Plan (cont’d.) Timeshares Like an exclusive use site but leased Service bureaus Agency that provides physical facilities Mutual agreements Contract between two organizations to assist Specialized alternatives Rolling mobile site Externally stored resources

Business Continuity Plan (cont’d.) To get any BCP site running quickly organization must be able to recover data Options include: Electronic vaulting Bulk batch-transfer of data to an off-site facility Remote journaling Transfer of live transactions to an off-site facility Database shadowing Storage of duplicate online transaction data

Timing and Sequence of CP Elements Figure 3-4 Incident response and disaster recovery Source: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

Timing and Sequence of CP Elements (cont’d.) Figure 3-5 Disaster recovery and business continuity planning Source: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

Timing and Sequence of CP Elements (cont’d.) Figure 3-6 Contingency planning implementation timeline Source: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

Crisis Management Crisis management A set of focused steps that deal primarily with the people involved during and after a disaster Crisis management team actions Supporting personnel and their loved ones during the crisis Determining the event's impact on normal business operations Making a disaster declaration

Crisis Management (cont’d.) Crisis management team actions (cont’d.) Keeping the public informed about the event Communicating with outside parties Key tasks of the crisis management team Verifying personnel status Activating the alert roster

Business Resumption Planning Because the DRP and BCP are closely related, most organizations prepare them concurrently May combine them into a single document, the business resumption plan (BRP) Although a single planning team can develop the BRP, execution requires separate teams

Table 3-3Contingency plan template Source: (http://csrc.nist.gov/fasp/FASPDocs/contingency-plan/contingencyplan-template.doc)

Business Resumption Planning (cont’d.) Components of a simple disaster recovery plan Name of agency Date of completion or update of the plan and test date Agency staff to be called in the event of a disaster Emergency services to be called (if needed) in event of a disaster This can vary with type of disaster (fire –vs- flood)

Business Resumption Planning (cont’d.) Components of a simple disaster recovery plan (cont’d.) Locations of in-house emergency equipment and supplies Sources of off-site equipment and supplies Salvage priority list Agency disaster recovery procedures Follow-up assessment

Testing Contingency Plans Problems are identified during testing Improvements can be made, resulting in a reliable plan Contingency plan testing strategies Desk check Structured walkthrough Simulation Parallel testing Full interruption testing

Contingency Planning: Final Thoughts Iteration results in improvement A formal implementation of this methodology is a process known as continuous process improvement (CPI) Each time the plan is rehearsed it should be improved Constant evaluation and improvement lead to an improved outcome