How do you educate staff and users about incident response?

Staffs and users education is imperative in incident response discourse, this informs them being the first line of defense how to recognize abnormalities in cyber operations such as red flags, threats, phishing, breaches and so on. Most importantly, the appropriate response to reduce the impact of attacks. This education empowers and promote staffs and users security awareness.

Educating staff and users about incident response is crucial for maintaining a strong security posture. Here are some effective strategies: 1. Training Programs: Implement regular training sessions or workshops to educate staff about incident response protocols, including how to recognize and report security incidents. 2. Simulated Exercises: Conduct simulated incident response exercises to give staff hands-on experience with responding to different types of security incidents. This helps reinforce knowledge and improves response readiness. 3. Awareness Campaigns 4. Documentation and Guidelines 5. Role-Based Training 6. Regular Updates 7. Collaborative Learning: Foster a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing among staff members.

Educating staff on incident management is crucial for a successful incident management process. I would prioritise: 1. Tailor the education programmes to the needs of the users. Some users will be more heavily involved in incident management than others. 2. Leverage tooling to make information visible. What is an incident commander? Let the tool explain it when it is assigned. What are the steps in the process for a specific incident type? Let the tool generate a to-do list. 3. Run incident drills and game days regularly, hands-on experience can't be replaced by a presentation. 4. Collect actionable feedback and implement it regularly in both the process and tools. People won't participate in a bad process powered by poor tooling.

Cyberangriffe haben fast immer Krisenpotenzial. Um in einer Krise gut zusammenzuarbeiten muss man besondere Krisenstrukturen und Krisenorganisationen schaffen. Dies sollte idealerweise präventiv, also vorab geschult werden. Innerhalb einer Krise herrscht klassischerweise ein Chaos, der Stresspegel und Entscheidungsdruck ist sehr hoch und man lebt mit vielen ungenauen Informationen/ Annahmen. Beispielsweise, wie schaffe ich es ein einheitliches Lagebild aufzubauen, wie arbeite ich ohne IT-Umgebung weiter und welche Rollen nehmen wir ein. All diese Prozesse und Strukturen erst einmal erlernt werden.

For questions like this one, I like to invert the question. "Why not educate staff and users?" and the inversion tells a story: it almost sounds silly to ask it. Educating staff and users benefits everyone: them, the organisation, the customers. By understanding incident response and what to do, they'll call an incident earlier, reducing customer impact and cost to the organisation. As an added benefit they understand better the connection between the organisation, the customers, the regulators, and others.

Der Bildungsbedarf hängt stark vom Risiko des Unternehmens aber auch am Reifegrad der beteiligten Personen und der grundsätzlichen Vorbereitung ab. Unternehmen mit einem hohen Risiko sollten unbedingt einen höheren Maßstab an die Vorbereitung (Ausbildung, Dokumentation, Ausgestaltung des Themas) legen. Weiterhin sollten Pläne für hohe Risiken und Grundlagen des Krisenmanagements vermittelt werden als einzelne Detailpläne entwickelt werden. Sprich, wie gehe ich mit einem scherwiegenden Ereignis generell um, beispielsweise mit der Verschlüsselung der gesamten Infrastruktur.

Assess your education needs by poking around to see where your weakest links are. Conduct surveys, analyze past incidents, and gauge the level of cybersecurity awareness among your folks. Figure out what they know, what they don't know, and what they need to know to fend off cyber nasties.

Das zu vermittelnde Wissen sollte reifegradorientiert sein. Das heißt, beginnt eine Organisation sich mit dem Thema auseinanderzusetzen, muss man erstmal Grundlagen schaffen und Rollen initial darauf vorbereiten. Weiterhin sollten Rollen (Krisenstab/ IT-Organisation) dediziert vorbereitet werden. Dies umfasst natürlich auch begleitende Hilfsmittel. Tools sind i.d.R. erstmal nachrangig. Erst wenn man eine gute Struktur hat, sollte man ein Tool suchen, welches einen hier unterstützt. Abschließend empfiehlt es sich die Inhalte über die Zeit aufzubauen, initial deutlich umfangreicher (z.B. Tag 1 bis Tag 3), danach kann man in der Qualität leichte Abstriche machen. Ab Tag 14 macht es z.B. keinen Sinn richtige Details vorzubereiten.

Design your education content like you're crafting a masterpiece. Break it down into bite-sized chunks, sprinkle in some real-life examples, and toss in a dash of interactivity to keep things spicy. Oh, and don't forget to make it relevant to your audience, or else you'll put 'em to sleep faster than a boring lecture.

#️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ 🙃 Host a Question and Answer session, plus tell a story, and add in some humor: Q: How did the hacker get in? A: Someone left their Windows open. Q: How did hacker get away? A: Used the backdoor and ransomware. Q: Why couldn't the witness identify the hacker? A: Used Spyware and Subnet Mask to hide identity. Q: How did the hacker get caught? A: CSIRT used a Bug, to lure in Scattered Spider, and they got stuck in the Web. A2: The CSIRT used Python to Byte...well, let's just say that a little bird (a.k.a. Parrot) did some squawking, but now they are done talking. Q: What happened to the hacker after getting caught? A: Police made them WannaCry by clearing their cookies. A2: FBI made their Heartbleed by deleting their cache.

Deliver your education methods through a variety of channels to reach everyone. Use a mix of in-person sessions, online courses, interactive modules, and good old posters plastered around the office. And hey, if you wanna get fancy, throw in some gamification to make learning fun. Sustain your education efforts by keeping the momentum going. Don't just fire and forget

Die zu erlernenden Methoden und Abläufe sollten so real wie möglich an die Echtsituation herankommen. Zum einen sollte man somit Tools und Hilfsmittel mit realitätsnahen Daten aber auch unter Stress benutzten. Es hilft nicht, ein schönes Tool zu haben was ich dann in der Krise nicht anwenden kann. Es empfiehlt sich somit immer Theoretisches Wissen mit der Verprobung in der Praxis zu kombinieren. Hier empfiehlt es sich jedoch die einzelnen Rollenträger einzeln oder in Gruppen vorzubereiten. Ein Krisenstabsleiter / IT-Stabsleiter, hat in der Regel weniger Zeit als jemand der Visualisiert oder technische Lagepläne erstellt.

Classical (military) "war gaming" simulates crisis scenarios, offering staff hands-on experience in making rapid decisions under pressure. By immersing participants in realistic simulations, it enhances their ability to anticipate potential challenges, think strategically, and collaborate effectively. Through repeated exposure to various crisis scenarios, individuals develop critical thinking skills and learn to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. This prepares them to respond calmly and decisively during real crises, minimizing panic and confusion. Ultimately, war gaming cultivates a proactive mindset, ensuring that staff are well-equipped to handle unexpected challenges with resilience and efficiency.

Make it relevant. Users are more likely to engage, and see the need for additional training, if there is a clear purpose. Tie content to near-misses or the most prevelant threat, to have the most impact.

Grundsätzlich sollte ein Schulungsplan vorliegen, indem dann das Zielniveau und die zu schulenden Personen / Gremien inkl. Stellvertreter dokumentiert sind. So können z.B. je nach Reifegrad später einzelne Rollenträger nachrangig betrachtet werden, wenn diese ausreichend geschult sind. Weiterhin sollte im Schulungsplan die Weiterentwicklung bestimmter Angriffsszenarien aber auch Lösungsmöglichkeiten berücksichtigt werden.

Learn to tell stories. Add colour to the guidance, give them a real world sense of what happened when it went wrong, but also ideally, when it went right. Story telling is such a valuable skill for any presenter, whether its for educational purposes or not. Draw on your experiences, give that personal context. Make the audience re-live your story.

Fictional and real scenario play, along with walk-through exercises, are valuable tools for preparing staff for incident management. By simulating potential crises in a controlled environment, participants gain practical experience in identifying, assessing, and responding to various threats and emergencies. Fictional scenarios allow for creative exploration of hypothetical situations, while real scenario play draws from past incidents to provide practical insights. Walk-through exercises offer hands-on practice in implementing response protocols, fostering familiarity and confidence among staff. Through these immersive experiences teams refine their incident management strategies.

In my role within internal audit, I've found that weaving incident response education into our professional development fabric makes a significant impact. Instead of dry lectures, I opt for dynamic workshops and simulations that put theory into real-world context. It's not just about conveying information; it's about creating a shared sense of responsibility. Through casual conversations, relatable examples, and a touch of humor, I aim to make incident response something we all actively engage with. It's not just a training session for me; it's about fostering a culture where we're all vigilant guardians of our digital landscape.

Incident response should be done by specialists and the division or responsibilities should be clearly earmarked and well explained to everyone. Incident response if not handled properly can make things worst. So clear demarcation of tasks in incident scenario is much required and essential. Keeping the c level informed during various stages of incident is also important and if there is a requirement of informing media it should be again done by specialists.

Learning through experience is one of the most effective cognitive methods. In addition, properly directed brainstorming of a motivated team can make a valuable contribution. - More experienced employees can participate as observers during incidences; - Kanban board - small improvements, make everyone's job easier; - Incident process - thick documentation vs. clear work instruction; - Weekly meetings to discuss ongoing issues or escalations; - intuitive tools.