Saturday, September 20, 2014

Contingency Planning (CP)

Contingency Planning (CP)

The overall process of preparing for unexpected adverse events is called contingency planning. Goal of Contingency planning is to restore normal modes of operation with minimal cost and disruption to normal business activities after an unexpected adverse event.
During contingency planning, Information Security communities and respective organizational units to prepare for detect, react to , and recover from events that threaten that security of information resources and assets, which includes human, information, and capital.

Components of CP:

·         Business impact analysis (BIA)
·         Incident response Plane (IR Plan)
·         Disaster recovery plan (DR Plan)
·         Business Continuity Plan (BC Plan).

According NIST recommendation following steps required to in Developing CP

·         Develop the policy statement. A formal policy provides the authority and guidance necessary to develop an effective contingency plan.
·         Conduct BIA. The BIA helps identify and prioritize information systems and components critical to supporting the organizations mission/business process.
·         Identify preventive controls. Measures taken to reduce the effects of system disruptions can increase system availability and reduce contingency life cycle costs.
·         Develop a contingency plan. The contingency plan should contain detailed guidance and procedures for restoring damaged organizational facilities unique to the each business unit’s impact level and recovery requirements.
·         Ensure plan, testing, training and exercises.  Testing validates recovery capabilities, whereas training prepares recovery personnel for plan activation and exercising the plan identifies planning gaps; combined the activities improve plan effectiveness and overall organization preparedness.
·         Ensure plan maintenance. The plan should be a living document that is updated regularly to remain current with system enhancements and organizational changes.

Reference: Management of Information Security by Whitman and Mattord

No comments:

Post a Comment