THREATNOIR
Subscribe
NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 · IR-2

Incident Response Training

US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) · cited in 5 of our lessons

Explanation

What it asks for. Users must receive incident response training consistent with their roles, within a defined time of taking on a role or responsibility, when system changes require it and at a defined frequency, with training content reviewed and updated.

In practice. This means general guidance for all staff on recognising and reporting incidents, and deeper training and exercises for responders, IT staff, communications and leadership. Tabletop exercises are an effective way to train decision-makers. Auditors expect training materials, completion records and exercise reports. Training should be refreshed after major changes to systems, tools or the threat landscape.

Common gaps. Responder training is often ad hoc and depends on a few experienced people. Leadership and communications staff are frequently not trained at all. Lessons from exercises are rarely fed back into training content.

Open SP 800-53 at NIST
The official text
a. Provide incident response training to system users consistent with assigned roles and responsibilities: 1. Within [Assignment: organization-defined time period] of assuming an incident response role or responsibility or acquiring system access; 2. When required by system changes; and 3. [Assignment: organization-defined frequency] thereafter; and b. Review and update incident response training content [Assignment: organization-defined frequency] and following [Assignment: organization-defined events]. Discussion: Incident response training is associated with the assigned roles and responsibilities of organizational personnel to ensure that the appropriate content and level of detail are included in such training. For example, users may only need to know who to call or how to recognize an incident; system administrators may require additional training on how to handle incidents; and incident responders may receive more specific training on forensics, data collection techniques, reporting, system recovery, and system restoration. Incident response training includes user training in identifying and reporting suspicious activities from external and internal sources. Incident response training for users may be provided as part of [AT-2](#at-2) or [AT-3](#at-3) . Events that may precipitate an update to incident response training content include, but are not limited to, incident response plan testing or response to an actual incident (lessons learned), assessment or audit findings, or changes in applicable laws, executive orders, directives, regulations, policies, standards, and guidelines.

From NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, a work of the US government in the public domain.

Lessons that cite it

Real incidents where this item mattered.