How would you build a csirt? what are the components to building an effective team?

Module 6 Discussion Forum
Include at least 250 words in your posting and at least 250 words in your reply. Indicate at least one source or reference in your original post. Please see syllabus for details on submission requirements.

Module 6 Discussion Question
Search "scholar.google.com" or your textbook. Include at least 250 words in your reply. Indicate at least one source or reference in your original post. Discuss ways organizations have built a CSIRT. What are the components to building an effective and successful CSIRT team?

Reply-1(Vindhya)

In the building, an effective and successful CSIRT the steps involved are as follows:

1. Buy-In and support of management are obtained: the creation of an effective incident response team becomes problematic and difficult without the support of the management. The support includes time, funding, and provision of resources to the team (D. Penedo, 2006). The important responsibility and function of the CSIRTs are obtaining managements perceptions and expectations.

2. The strategic plan of CSIRT development is determined: by dealing with the administrative issues and addressing the project management issues the development of CSIRT is to be managed.

3. Relevant information is gathered: the service needs of the organization and to determine the incident response the information is gathered. In gathering the information the resources available are inventories of assets and critical system, for enterprise the organization charts and functions of specific business, networks, and systems organizational topologies, plans of business-continuity or existing disaster recovery, the physical security breach of organization is notified by existing guidelines, existing plans of incident-management, regulations of institution or parental, and existing security policies and procedures.

4. CSIRT vision is designed: The key components of the CSIRT are identified by bringing the gathered information to incident response constituency needs. For creating, CSIRT vision the points to be followed are (Z. Yunos, 2016): Constituency identification, the goals, objectives, and mission of CSIRT are defined, CSIRT services are selected and provided to the constituency, the organizational model is determined, required resources are identified, and CSIRT funding is determined.

5. The vision of CSIRT is communicated: the operational plan and vision are communicated to constituency, management, and others involved in the operation and feedbacks are obtained. Communicating vision before implementation helps in identification of problems.

6. CSIRT implementation begins: the steps involved in implementation are the CSIRT staff is hired and trained, in supporting team the necessary infrastructure is built and equipment are bought, the initial set of CSIRT procedures and policies are developed, the specifications of incident-tracking system are defined and the forms and guidelines of incident-reporting are developed for a constituency.

7. CSIRT announcement: broadly announce to constituency when CSIRT is operational also include the operation hours and contact information.

8. The effectiveness of CSIRT is evaluated: information on effectiveness is gathered by including against other CSIRTs the benchmark, with constituency representatives the general discussions involved, on a periodic basis the surveys of evaluation are distributed to members of the constituency, and in evaluating the team the quality parameters or set of criteria created by an audit.

References:

D. Penedo (2006), Optimal Policy for Software Vulnerability Disclosure. Good practice guide for CERTs in the area of Industrial Control Systems - Computer Emergency Response Capabilities considerations for ICS.

Z. Yunos (2016), Creating and Managing Computer Security Incident Handling Teams (CSIRTs), CERT Training and Education Networked Systems Survivability Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University.

Reply-2 ( Glad)

CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team) is a team within an organization which responds to threats or incidents as they occur within the organization. Their responsibilities include,

- Maintaining and creating an incident response plan

- Identifying, troubleshoot and remediation of any incidents

- Communication methods for incident responses

- Combing the organization and proactively identifying and physical or network security threats.

- Recommending technologies, policy updates, governance updates based off the past threats

Keeping in mind the roles and responsibilities of this team, to build a team to perform these activities and own the responsibilities, the first step towards creating this team would be to buy management support to ensure they are in agreement with the creation of such a team and are on board to sign off on the resource allocation and budget as well as procedural aspects of building a CSIRT team.

The next step would be to create a strategic development plan on the various facets the team should possess and within which time frame team should be formed. The plan should be feasible and the timelines realistic and also care has to be taken to ensure the plan aligns with overall objectives of the organization.

After the strategic plan is developed, information should be gathered to ensure all aspects of the CSIRT team is covered based on the types of policies formulated, types of threats assessed and the services that are to be offered. The team will have to be picked based on the information at this stage.

Once the team is aligned and the vision is set, the vision of this team and its operations will have to be communicated within the organization to bring about an awareness on what this team could do.

Post the organizational wide announcement and policy implementation, the team goes live into operations and implements all the guidelines and procedures thereby serving the organization.

References:

Fuertes, W., Reyes, F., Valladares, P., Tapia, F., Toulkeridis, T., & Pérez, E. (2017). An Integral Model to Provide Reactive and Proactive Services in an Academic CSIRT Based on Business Intelligence. Systems, 5(4), 52. doi: 10.3390/systems5040052

Möller, K. (2007). Setting up a Grid‐CERT: experiences of an academic CSIRT. Campus-Wide Information Systems, 24(4), 260-270. doi: 10.1108/10650740710834644