Re: IDS Incident Escalation Procedure

Hi Jim,

Usually, an Incident Escalation procedure for an IDS stems from
1. The structure of the core Incident Response Team
2. Adherence to any higher level policy, if required (in line with escalation matrices defined in the business continuity plans)
3. SLAs signed with clients - internal and external

One suggested team structure is
1. Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) leader
2. Incident Handler
3. Database Administrators
4. Legal Counsel

Now depending on the nature and category of alerts coming from the IDS, an incident can be escalated from the incident handler to CIRT leader to database admin to Legal Counsel. Also, the escalation may vary depending on the severity of alerts.

As Vijay rightly pointed, you can refer to the NIST SP 800-61 publication, the Incident Notification section. This provides a sample list of parties which are usually notified.

HTH,
Khushbu Jithra
Information Security Consultant
NII Consulting
Web: http://www.niiconsulting.com

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