What are the most important incident response team skills for managing customer expectations?

Communication skills are not luxury option in your character, it is noe essential part to you and your company Building relationships, maintain this relationship, team building, negotiation abilities, and more are one of the most communication skill you have to have You cannot negotiate in having these skill or not

Clear communication is pivotal in incident response, ensuring stakeholders, particularly customers, are well-informed and reassured. It involves articulating complex technical information in a non-technical manner, proactively managing expectations, and fostering trust. Team members should communicate not only known facts but also uncertainties, duration expectations, and actively engage in a two-way dialogue. This comprehensive strategy includes outlining contingency plans when applicable, showcasing the team's dedication to resolution. In essence, clear communication is a multifaceted skill that nurtures a relationship of trust and collaboration between the incident response team and its customers.

In addition to technical expertise and problem solving, cyber incident response team members should have strong teamwork and communication skills. Speaking and writing skills are essential because cooperation and coordination are the key to effective incident response. Timely and effective communication is crucial during incident management. Customers should be kept informed about the progress of their incident, including acknowledgment, estimated resolution times, and any workarounds or temporary solutions.

This is important in every walk of life, however some of the greatest tech folks may not be best communicators, that is absolutely fine as long as they are able to fend off the attacker. Communication can be done with someone who manages the project / team. Not a mandatory skill. Tech skills are super important.

Dont think this matters as much. An incident has can have far reaching consequences on an organizations ability to conduct business and in extreme cases survive! People jobs, etc can be at stake. I would rather have a dispassionate, technically strong team to counter the attack rather than an empathetic person. Its war with the bad actors.

Managing customer expectations during incident response requires a blend of technical expertise such as Clear Communication, Empathy, Active Listening, Problem-Solving, Flexibility, Transparency, Customer Service Skills, Conflict Resolution, Stakeholder Management, Post-Incident Review: After the incident has been resolved, conducting a thorough post-incident review provides an opportunity to gather feedback from customers, identify areas for improvement, and implement lessons learned to enhance future incident response efforts. Keeping customers informed about the outcomes of the review process demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvement and customer satisfaction.

The first and foremost skill that incident response team needs is technical expertise. Our team members should be able to perform tasks such as network and system monitoring, malware analysis, digital forensics, threat intelligence, and incident documentation. Strong leadership skills to effectively guide and motivate the team, especially under high-pressure, stressful situations are essential, as well as, critical thinking skills to navigate through tricky situations to make crucial decisions.

This the the primary skill - the ability to triage an incident requires good to great analytical skills. This skill should be coupled with the understanding of the client tech environment, escalation procedures, etc. Triaging requires the person to correlate data coming from various sources and make quick decisions on the "false positive" vs. a genuine incident. I have seen such analysts shine and rise up the ranks. If you have great communication skills to augment the above, there is no stopping you!!

You should be always updated, it is not negotiation point Information Technology in general and Cybersecurity specially are field that evolute dramatically Every day there are threat and there are countermeasure technologies to handle it You have to know these threats and the technologies shoulder by shoulder, otherwise you will be one or more step behind your opponents And your opponents here are your colleagues in the same career

Ensure there is a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities. It is surprisingly common for an SMB to have both the FBI and a response team from the insurance company involved in assessing their situation, but be unaware that those two entities have zero responsibility for helping them to recover. As a responder, one of your first questions should be if they have a BCDR plan and if they are prepared to execute on it in parallel with what you're doing. Getting an early jump on that recovery process can be the biggest difference in whether they survive the incident or not!

Promise only what you can certanly deliver and overdeliver everything. Listen more than you talk and always be the first to start a conversation with your client. Never let your client to be the proactive one in that relationship