To facilitate cyber incident response in practice, many organizations are building "cybersecurity playbooks" that provide tailored, practical guidance that enhances organizational readiness. During a cyber incident, easy access to actionable material can be central to an effective response. The content, audience and goals for a playbook may vary. For example, they may contain highly technical materials for IT teams, guides for cross-functional and crossborder management, or primers for executive leadership. Whatever its focus, a playbook, and the process of making one, can help steer incident response procedures in the right direction, save precious time and serve as a reminder to prevent common mistakes that heighten legal and business risks.

We briefly discuss below five things that general counsels should consider when developing a cyber incident playbook.

Enhancing Organizational Readiness in Light of Evolving Threats. Cybercrime costs the global economy as much as $3 trillion annually by some estimates, and cyber threats continue to become more sophisticated and severe. A "cybersecurity playbook", and the process of making one, can enhance cybersecurity preparedness, help steer incident response procedures in the right direction, save precious time and serve as a reminder to prevent common mistakes that heighten legal and business risks.

Tailoring Playbooks to Facilitate Decision-Making. A company may decide to set up a series of playbooks for different regions and/or departments. Playbooks can be highly technical, but they can also provide guidance to a non-technical audience, including by setting out key factors to facilitate decision-making and addressing governance and incident response procedures.

Preparing a Legal Cybersecurity Playbook. A playbook for a general counsel's office, for example, could include a summary of key actions that relevant lawyers should plan to carry out during incident response, such as:

  • Providing legal guidance and identifying legal risks;
  • Establishing and maintaining attorneyclient privilege;
  • Analyzing whether contractual obligations are implicated, for example, in a vendor breach or with regard to institutional clients;
  • Assisting with information flows—both internally (board of directors, impacted system stakeholders) and externally (law enforcement, regulators, clients/customers and third parties);
  • Taking steps in anticipation of litigation;
  • Maintaining a record and timeline of the good faith efforts to identify the source and nature of the incident and the steps taken during incident response; and
  • Protecting the privacy rights of all clients/customers, employees or other individuals whose data may be implicated.

Balancing Practical, Confidential Guidance with Providing Documentation of Cyber Preparedness. Once a cybersecurity playbook is in place, it can serve as helpful documentation to demonstrate the company's commitment to reasonable cybersecurity practices. However, some elements of the playbook may benefit from full and frank legal guidance. Further, there is a risk that sharing playbooks with regulators or other third parties may increase scrutiny for potential gaps between stated goals and actual responses. With these factors in mind, organizations should consider what portion of a playbook, if any, they would be willing to share with regulators. Ultimately, it is important to balance how best to maintain practical, confidential guidance while providing useful documentation of cyber preparedness.

Testing and Improving Playbooks through Training and Tabletop Exercises. The NIST Guide for Cybersecurity Event Recovery notes that these "exercises help identify gaps that can be addressed before a crisis situation, reducing their business impact." Such exercises can also help to surface internal process or communications challenges and can improve a company's response to cyber incidents.

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