CIS Control 17.5: Assign Key Roles and Responsibilities for Incident Response
Incident response requires clear ownership. CIS Control 17.5 mandates that organizations designate specific roles across legal, IT, security, facilities, PR, and HR to ensure coordinated, effective incident handling. Without defined responsibilities, response efforts fragment and detection-to-containment time expands dangerously.
What this means
This control requires you to formally assign incident response duties to individuals and departments before an incident occurs. Key roles include incident responders, security analysts, IT staff, legal counsel, human resources, public relations, and facilities teams. Each role should have clear responsibilities documented and understood. The control also mandates annual review of role assignments to ensure they remain current as organizational structures and personnel change.
How to comply
- 1.Document all incident response roles required for your organization (incident commander, analyst, IT lead, legal liaison, PR contact, HR liaison, facilities coordinator)
- 2.Assign specific named individuals to each role with clear responsibility descriptions
- 3.Define escalation paths and decision-making authority for each role
- 4.Create role-specific incident response procedures and playbooks
- 5.Communicate role assignments and responsibilities to all relevant staff
- 6.Conduct annual reviews of role assignments and update as personnel changes occur
- 7.Test role effectiveness through tabletop exercises and simulations
Evidence auditors look for
- Incident response charter or plan naming assigned roles and responsibilities
- Organizational chart showing incident response team structure
- Role-specific playbooks or runbooks for incident handling
- Staff training records on incident response responsibilities
- Annual role review documentation with sign-off dates
- Contact lists with current role assignments updated within past 12 months
- Incident response tabletop exercise reports demonstrating role clarity
Frequently asked questions
When will FAQs be available?
The FAQ for this control is currently being prepared.
GRCWatch automates role assignment tracking and annual review workflows, sending automated reminders when role assignments are due for renewal and maintaining a current roster accessible during incident response activation.
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