How do you coordinate incident response with third-party vendors?

1 Identify your vendors

Before an incident happens, you should identify the potential vendors that you may need to contact in case of a breach, attack, or disruption. These could include your internet service provider, cloud provider, security software provider, hardware manufacturer, forensic analyst, legal counsel, or public relations firm. You should have a list of their contact information, service level agreements, and escalation procedures. You should also review their security policies and practices, and ensure that they comply with your standards and regulations.

2 Establish communication channels

During an incident, you need to communicate clearly and frequently with your vendors, as well as with your internal stakeholders. You should establish secure and reliable communication channels, such as encrypted email, phone, or chat, and assign roles and responsibilities for each party. You should also define the scope, objectives, and expectations of the collaboration, and agree on the format and frequency of the updates and reports. You should document all the communication and actions taken by the vendors, and verify their accuracy and validity.

3 Share relevant information

To facilitate the incident response, you need to share relevant information with your vendors, such as the nature and impact of the incident, the systems and data affected, the actions taken so far, and the evidence collected. However, you should also protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your information, and limit the access and privileges of the vendors to the minimum necessary. You should use secure methods to transfer and store the information, such as encryption, hashing, or digital signatures, and follow the best practices for data handling and disposal.

4 Monitor and audit the activities

While you rely on the expertise and assistance of your vendors, you should also monitor and audit their activities during the incident response. You should verify that they follow the agreed-upon procedures, meet the deadlines and quality standards, and adhere to the security and ethical principles. You should also check for any anomalies, errors, or breaches that may occur due to the vendor's actions or negligence. You should have a mechanism to report and address any issues or concerns that arise during the collaboration.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?