FEATURE
Response plans
need to be succinct,
free of jargon
and preferably in
the form of quick
checklists that
everyone can follow
under pressure.
One attendee, Wayne Parkes, Head of
ICT – Warwickshire Police UK, offered
his opinion on the course: “Quite a
difficult subject to get over sometimes
but I think Amar presented it really well.
Nice mixture of technical knowledge
and practical examples. Good for a
very mixed audience as it wasn’t overly
technical. I highly recommend it in terms
of bringing a mixed group up to speed
with the importance of responding to a
cyber incident, and what the essentials
are about dealing with it.”
We spoke to Amar Singh, Founder and
CEO of Cyber Management Alliance, to
find out more about the importance of
incident response and how the course
provides attendees with a level of
confidence in this particular field.
How would you define a good
incident response plan and how
important is this?
A good incident response plan is one
that is simple, well-rehearsed by all key
stakeholders in the organisation and
one that is actually fit-for-purpose. As far
as importance goes, doing business in
cyberspace without an effective incident
response plan is likened to:
• Going on a holiday, during the
pandemic, with no insurance,
no masks and a brand-new,
unopened phone
• Jumping off a plane with a parachute
without reading the manual or testing
if the parachute actually works
I’m very vocal about the fact that longwinded
and complex response plans
will take you nowhere. They will confuse
and create chaos. Response plans
need to be succinct, free of jargon and
preferably in the form of quick checklists
that everyone can follow under pressure.
Also, if your incident response plans are
not tested, they’re as good as the brandnew,
unopened, untested smartphone
AND without an Internet connection.
How does the course provide
good preparation and response
to a cyber incident or breach?
Our UK government’s NCSC-Certified
CIPR course has been designed
to cater to both technical and nontechnical
audiences and transcends
specific functions and hierarchies.
Therefore, it gives a really holistic
picture of all the aspects of cyber
preparedness that a business executive
or an IT professional needs to know.
Through the 19 modules, the course
introduces you to the basic concepts
of cyberattacks, opens your mind to
what actually happens during a breach
and then educates you on how you can
plan and be prepared to respond to that
breach in advance. The overarching
idea behind the course is that attackers
will breach the defences. You need to
plan to rapidly detect and prepare to
swiftly respond to the attackers to stop
them in their tracks.
38 Issue 28 | www.intelligentciso.com