In Episode 1 Simple Steps to Online Safety, CYBER24 addresses the most basic and fundamental threats posed by cybercrime to Utah businesses and organizations. One of our guests, Matt Sorensen, who serves as the chief information security officer (CISO) for Secuvant, pointed listeners to a very basic framework to consider when grappling with cybersecurity issues. This cybersecurity framework was established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) at the Department of Commerce. It contains the basics of what your business or organization should be considering as you prepare for a cyber incident.
Here are the basics outlined in the NIST framework:
- Identify – Assess your situation and understand vulnerabilities and resources. This is foundational to developing a successful plan.
- Protect – Develop and implement safeguards to protect your organization. The key is to limit and contain potential cyber incidents.
- Detect – Create systems to timely identify the occurrence of a cybersecurity event.
- Respond – Be prepared to take action addressing a detected cybersecurity event. An effective response will limit the damage to your organization.
- Recover – Maintain plans for resilience and to restore any capabilities or services impaired by a cybersecurity event.
One thing that every business should have is a “key contacts” list to guide a timely response to an incident. This list could include the following contact information:
- An attorney to help guide your response and inform you of your legal duties and liability
- Law enforcement personnel to assist in your response
- An Insurance broker to help navigate your cyber insurance policy
- A communications firm to guide your strategic communication to stakeholders and potentially the media
- A cybersecurity consultant with expertise to assist in all areas of a response
To give you a head start, we asked, Sergeant Jeff Plank who supervises the Utah State Bureau of Investigation’s Cyber Crime Unit, which is embedded with the FBI’s Cyber Task Force in Salt Lake City, for the right key contact information for law enforcement for a Utah based business or organization. It is as follows:
Report to your local police department
Utah Department of Public Safety/State Bureau of Investigation
Telephone: 801-532-2168
Website: https://sbi.utah.gov/contact/
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Telephone: 1-800-Call-FBI or Salt Lake City Division is 801-579-1400
Website: IC3.gov