IR-4: Incident Handling
Control Family:
CSF v1.1 References:
Previous Version:
- NIST Special Publication 800-53 Revision 4:
- IR-4: Incident Handling
Control Statement
- Implement an incident handling capability for incidents that is consistent with the incident response plan and includes preparation, detection and analysis, containment, eradication, and recovery;
- Coordinate incident handling activities with contingency planning activities;
- Incorporate lessons learned from ongoing incident handling activities into incident response procedures, training, and testing, and implement the resulting changes accordingly; and
- Ensure the rigor, intensity, scope, and results of incident handling activities are comparable and predictable across the organization.
Supplemental Guidance
Organizations recognize that incident response capabilities are dependent on the capabilities of organizational systems and the mission and business processes being supported by those systems. Organizations consider incident response as part of the definition, design, and development of mission and business processes and systems. Incident-related information can be obtained from a variety of sources, including audit monitoring, physical access monitoring, and network monitoring; user or administrator reports; and reported supply chain events. An effective incident handling capability includes coordination among many organizational entities (e.g., mission or business owners, system owners, authorizing officials, human resources offices, physical security offices, personnel security offices, legal departments, risk executive [function], operations personnel, procurement offices). Suspected security incidents include the receipt of suspicious email communications that can contain malicious code. Suspected supply chain incidents include the insertion of counterfeit hardware or malicious code into organizational systems or system components. For federal agencies, an incident that involves personally identifiable information is considered a breach. A breach results in unauthorized disclosure, the loss of control, unauthorized acquisition, compromise, or a similar occurrence where a person other than an authorized user accesses or potentially accesses personally identifiable information or an authorized user accesses or potentially accesses such information for other than authorized purposes.
Control Enhancements
IR-4(1): Automated Incident Handling Processes
Baseline(s):
- Moderate
- High
Support the incident handling process using [Assignment: organization-defined automated mechanisms].
IR-4(2): Dynamic Reconfiguration
Baseline(s):
Include the following types of dynamic reconfiguration for [Assignment: organization-defined system components] as part of the incident response capability: [Assignment: organization-defined types of dynamic reconfiguration].
IR-4(3): Continuity of Operations
Baseline(s):
Identify [Assignment: organization-defined classes of incidents] and take the following actions in response to those incidents to ensure continuation of organizational mission and business functions: [Assignment: organization-defined actions to take in response to classes of incidents].
IR-4(4): Information Correlation
Baseline(s):
- High
Correlate incident information and individual incident responses to achieve an organization-wide perspective on incident awareness and response.
IR-4(5): Automatic Disabling of System
Baseline(s):
Implement a configurable capability to automatically disable the system if [Assignment: organization-defined security violations] are detected.
IR-4(6): Insider Threats
Baseline(s):
Implement an incident handling capability for incidents involving insider threats.
IR-4(7): Insider Threats – Intra-organization Coordination
Baseline(s):
Coordinate an incident handling capability for insider threats that includes the following organizational entities [Assignment: organization-defined entities].
IR-4(8): Correlation with External Organizations
Baseline(s):
Coordinate with [Assignment: organization-defined external organizations] to correlate and share [Assignment: organization-defined incident information] to achieve a cross-organization perspective on incident awareness and more effective incident responses.
IR-4(9): Dynamic Response Capability
Baseline(s):
Employ [Assignment: organization-defined dynamic response capabilities] to respond to incidents.
IR-4(10): Supply Chain Coordination
Baseline(s):
Coordinate incident handling activities involving supply chain events with other organizations involved in the supply chain.
IR-4(11): Integrated Incident Response Team
Baseline(s):
- High
Establish and maintain an integrated incident response team that can be deployed to any location identified by the organization in [Assignment: organization-defined time period].
IR-4(12): Malicious Code and Forensic Analysis
Baseline(s):
Analyze malicious code and/or other residual artifacts remaining in the system after the incident.
IR-4(13): Behavior Analysis
Baseline(s):
Analyze anomalous or suspected adversarial behavior in or related to [Assignment: organization-defined environments or resources].
IR-4(14): Security Operations Center
Baseline(s):
Establish and maintain a security operations center.
IR-4(15): Public Relations and Reputation Repair
Baseline(s):
Manage public relations associated with an incident; and Employ measures to repair the reputation of the organization.