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The Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) Plan: Purpose and Primary Elements

A Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) plan, often referred to as an Incident Response Plan (IRP), is a structured, documented approach that outlines the procedures an organization will follow to identify, contain, eradicate, recover from, and learn from cybersecurity incidents. Its overarching purpose is to minimize the damage, disruption, and financial impact of security breaches, restore normal operations swiftly, protect sensitive data, maintain trust with stakeholders, and continuously improve an organization’s security posture. For a global material handling equipment company like KION Group, whose operations rely heavily on interconnected systems for manufacturing, logistics, and warehouse automation, a robust CIRT plan is indispensable for maintaining operational integrity and customer confidence.

The primary elements of a CIRT plan typically follow a systematic lifecycle, as widely recognized by frameworks like NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) or SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, and Security) Institute:

1. Preparation: This foundational phase involves establishing the CIRT team, defining roles and responsibilities, developing policies and procedures, acquiring necessary tools (e.g., Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems, endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions), conducting training for team members, and creating communication templates. For KION Group, this would include mapping critical assets (e.g., industrial control systems, manufacturing execution systems, ERP, file servers), identifying key stakeholders, and ensuring legal and public relations counsel are integrated.
2. Identification: This phase focuses on detecting security incidents. It involves continuous monitoring of systems and networks for anomalies, alerts, or indicators of compromise (IoCs). Once an alert is triggered, it requires initial analysis to confirm if an actual incident has occurred, assess its scope, and determine its severity.