Think Beyond Prevention: Crafting Effective Post-Breach Plans for the Energy Sector with Secure Out-of-Band Collaboration
As cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, it’s clear that no system is entirely foolproof. Even with the best preventive measures in place, the reality is that breaches can and do happen.
When “right-of-bang” scenarios occur, the speed and effectiveness of your response can make all the difference. What you do next is just as crucial as the preparations you’ve made. This is where the limitations of a purely preventive approach become evident.
Planning for the inevitable breach—knowing how to respond and recover quickly, securely, and effectively—is the key to resilience in the face of cyber adversity.
How to Develop Effective Post-Breach Plans for the Energy Sector
Crafting a clear and comprehensive post-breach plan ensures that your energy firm is not just reacting but is prepared to contain and recover from the incident swiftly. This foresight is essential for minimizing damage and maintaining operational continuity.
Here are the key considerations and steps you can take to ensure your post-breach plan is not only effective but also resilient in the face of evolving threats.
Establish Clear and Secure SecOps Communication Protocols
Ensure that your security operations team, including both IT and OT personnel, has predefined communication channels that remain secure during a breach. This includes having backup methods for when primary systems are compromised.
Develop a Robust Incident Response Communication Plan
Outline how your incident response (IR) team will coordinate during a breach. This should include specifics on how to escalate issues, involve key parties such as executives and shareholders, and manage external communications.
Regularly Test and Update Your Plans
Conduct regular tabletop exercises, drills, simulations, and updates to your post-breach plans to ensure they remain relevant to the evolving threat landscape and organizational changes.
Document Critical Information
Identify and itemize all critical information related to your incident response plan such as contact lists, plans and procedures, insurance documents, law enforcement contacts, regulatory reporting requirements, press release templates etc, and ensure it is securely documented and accessible only to authorized personnel.
Train Your Teams
Regular training for your SecOps and incident response teams is crucial. This ensures that everyone knows their role and can execute the plan effectively under pressure.
Involve External Experts
Involving external cybersecurity experts before an incident can provide critical perspectives, as well as support during a breach.
The Hidden Risk: Where Are You Discussing Your Post-Breach Plans?
While crafting a post-breach plan is essential, there’s another critical aspect to consider: where these discussions and plans are taking place.
What if the very system you’re using to document and communicate these strategies gets compromised? It’s a scenario that’s happening more and more frequently. During the 2020 SolarWinds breach, for example, attackers accessed internal systems, potentially exposing sensitive recovery plans stored in platforms like SharePoint or Slack. These commonly used tools, while convenient, are vulnerable to the same threats you’re trying to defend against.
As we’ve discussed in a previous blog, attackers often target communication channels to gather credentials, network diagrams, and other sensitive data, which can further facilitate their attacks. Relying on traditional apps during a breach puts your recovery strategies at risk. That’s why secure, out-of-band communication methods are essential to protect your plans, especially if primary systems are compromised.
Secure Out-of-Band Collaboration: The Key to Effective Post-Breach Planning in the Energy Sector
To mitigate the risks of compromised Physical, SecOps, and IR communication channels, the solution lies in adopting secure out-of-band collaboration. This approach ensures that your most critical discussions and recovery plans are protected from potential breaches.
Out-of-band communication operates independently of your primary networks, providing a secure and isolated platform for crisis management and post-breach planning. ArmorText’s Secure Out of Band Collaboration™ platform is a prime example of how this can be effectively implemented.
By leveraging patented end-to-end encryption, ArmorText ensures that only authorized users can access sensitive Physical, SecOps, and IR communications. Its secure out-of-band collaboration platform supports messaging, voice, video, and file-sharing, all within a secure environment that complies with the strictest data sovereignty and compliance requirements.
Unlike enterprise apps and consumer privacy tools, ArmorText is purpose-built for security operations and incident response. It offers advanced features like secure onboarding, policy enforcement, and federated trust relationships, ensuring that your post-breach communications are not just secure but also compliant with industry standards.
Crafting Resilient Post-Breach Plans with ArmorText
When crafting effective post-breach plans, the tools you use are crucial in ensuring those plans are both actionable and secure. ArmorText’s Secure Out of Band Collaboration™ platform offers features that make it an essential tool for developing and safeguarding your post-breach strategies.
Secure Discussions
Planning for potential breaches involves sensitive discussions and critical information. ArmorText’s end-to-end encryption ensures that every step—whether sharing threat intelligence or drafting incident response protocols—remains secure. This gives your team the confidence to discuss and document every aspect without fear of exposure.
Data Accessibility & Compliance
Security isn’t just about protecting communication; it’s also about ensuring that your data is accessible and compliant with regulations. ArmorText’s data sovereignty feature ensures that your plans are stored in compliance with local regulations, which is vital for global operations, especially when dealing with multinational requirements.
E-Discovery & Archiving
ArmorText’s e-discovery feature provides a secure, end-to-end encrypted archive of all communications and documents. This unique approach allows you to meet your records retention requirements without forcing you to export a plain-text copy to a network you’re assuming will be compromised. Beyond compliance requirements, retained records help teams to review and refine post-breach plans continuously, keeping them aligned with the latest threat intelligence and compliance needs. A securely archived history means you can stay compliant and improve strategies without exposing this data to network vulnerabilities.
Enterprise Controls
The platform’s enterprise controls enable security leaders to enforce policy and user management throughout the planning process and during an actual event, all without creating an insider threat by giving access to the underlying data to admins. The governance features help maintain control over the data, while the User+Device E2EE ensures that only the right people can access sensitive discussions, reducing the risks of unauthorized access and legal exposure.
Get Started
ArmorText’s Secure Out-of-Band Collaboration™ platform is not just a tool for crisis communication; it’s essential for both secure post-breach planning and effective incident response. By leveraging its robust security features, your teams can collaborate to create resilient, actionable plans that are protected from evolving threats. Additionally, during the actual post-breach remediation and response, ArmorText ensures that your communication channels remain secure and operational, enabling seamless coordination and execution of recovery efforts even when primary systems are compromised.
Ready to fortify your post-breach plans and ensure an effective incident response with secure, compliant collaboration? Download ArmorText or request a demo today to learn more!