Sebastian is an incident responder experiencing friction while coordinating and communicating with business units outside his organization during large-scale incidents.
What should he make sure is established first to support more seamless incident communications in the future?
Suggested Answer:
D
Explanation:
A formal incident communication plan establishes the procedures, responsibilities, communication channels, and escalation contacts required to coordinate large-scale cybersecurity incidents.
When an incident affects multiple business units or external organizations, communication failures can delay containment decisions, recovery activities, regulatory notifications, and executive awareness.
The plan should identify designated points of contact for each relevant business unit and define who is authorized to communicate particular categories of incident information.
It should also establish reporting frequencies, escalation thresholds, backup communication channels, and procedures for maintaining shared situational awareness.
For example, an incident involving a major cloud-service disruption may require simultaneous coordination among security operations, infrastructure teams, application owners, legal representatives, customers, and external service providers.
Defined communication procedures reduce uncertainty about who must be contacted and which information should be exchanged.
NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 3 emphasizes integrating incident-response activities into organizational cybersecurity risk management, including preparation, coordination, and recovery.
Option A addresses escalation criteria but does not provide a complete communication structure.
Option B incorrectly decentralizes incident command, potentially creating conflicting instructions and fragmented accountability.
Option C is inappropriate because incident information must remain subject to confidentiality, privacy, and authorized disclosure requirements.
A formal communication plan therefore provides the most effective foundational improvement.
Official reference / study topic: NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 3, Incident Response and Communication Planning.
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