Elevating Security: Transforming Incident Management for Reduced Incidents & Response Times

Challenge

The company was grappling with a high volume of customer and internal incidents, exacerbated by malware from customers impacting others and the internal organization.

Their incident response team was understaffed and continuously in firefighting mode due to the lack of a formal incident response strategy, leading to ad hoc handling of all information security events.

The rapid deployment of new Internet-based services without security team involvement further heightened the risk landscape, necessitating a structured approach to incident response.

Solution

To address these challenges, JBW Group International implemented a formal incident response strategy compatible with their ISO 27001 information security management system (ISMS) framework.

We introduced a prototype incident response process with defined roles and responsibilities, along with defined measurement points for measuring and reporting metrics.

A prototype new product development process was also introduced which incorporated security requirements and reviews at multiple stages in the product development process.

Through an activity-based resource management model, we quantitatively demonstrated the need for a 20% increase in security group staffing, persuading executive leadership to allocate resources accordingly.

Results

• 80% reduction in security incidents arising from new product offerings.
• Decreased total number of incidents by nearly 50%.
• Significantly reduced response time from incident notification to closure from weeks to hours.
• Prototype incident response process demonstrated effectiveness in managing security events, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in incident management and resolution.

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