Explain how having an incident response plan in place will benefit Azumer Water, using details from the case study to support your explanation.

Many organizations marginalize the management of the security of their infrastructure in hopes that they will not be the target of cyberattacks. However, cyberattacks happen frequently and tend to become more sophisticated over time. In reality, every organization is a likely target of malicious actors. These attacks result in a range of impacts on an organization and its core business and could significantly interrupt operations.

To be proactive, organizations need to have structures, processes, and plans in place to counter and respond to potential attacks and to deal with the consequences of successful attacks. A suitable security management plan and well-defined security goals that support the overall goals of the organization can ensure a reasonable level of business continuity, even in the case of security incidents.

In any organization, the individuals on the IT staff must work together to support the security goals of the organization. These individuals play significant roles in detecting and preventing security incidents before they occur. In the case of successful attacks, security management professionals are tasked with acting quickly to mitigate the attacks effects.

Part I: Incident Analysis and Response

A. Determine why the attack on Azumer Waters infrastructure was successful, including the specific vulnerabilities that allowed the attack to occur. Provide details from the case study to support your claims.

B. Explain how the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of Azumer Waters operations and PII (personally identifying information) data have been compromised, using NIST, ISO 27002, or another industry-standard framework to support two claims of compromise.

C. Identify a federal regulation this NGO violated, providing a specific example from the case study as evidence of Azumer Waters noncompliance.

D. Recommend immediate steps to mitigate the impact of the incident, using specific examples from the case study to justify how these steps would mitigate the impact.

E. Explain how having an incident response plan in place will benefit Azumer Water, using details from the case study to support your explanation.

Part II: Risk Assessment and Management

F. Discuss two processes to increase information assurance levels within the organization and bring Azumer Water into compliance with the violated federal regulation identified in part C.

G. Recommend technical solutions to counter the remaining effects of the attack in the case study and to prevent future attacks.

H. Recommend an organizational structure for IT and security management, including a logical delineation of roles and adequate coverage of responsibilities, to support the efficient discovery and mitigation of future incidents.

I. Describe your risk management approach for Azumer Water based on the likelihood, severity, and impact categorization of two risks in the case study.

J. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

K. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.