Incident Information Sharing and Automation Questions

I need help describing how my company will address the recommendations laid out in Section 4 (Coordination and Information Sharing) in the NIST 800-61 rev 2. The two recommendations I want to cover are:

-Perform incident information sharing throughout the incident response life cycle. 

Information sharing is a key element of enabling coordination across organizations. Organizations should not wait
until an incident has been fully resolved before sharing details of it with others.

– Attempt to automate as much of the information-sharing process as possible. 

This makes cross-organizational coordination efficient and cost-effective. Organizations should attempt to achieve a
balance of automated information sharing overlaid with human-centric processes for managing the
information flow

My company’s name is EquipmentShare

The disaster scenario that the response will be tested against is Ultily outages.(see the example below to see how it was used)

When addressing these recommendations, I need to be specific (i.e. who are your vendors, what are the local media – TV news, newspapers, etc. that may pick up a story, etc.?).

Here is an example of what was done for the first recommendation:

1.0 Incident Coordination with External Parties

Creating relationships with external parties is imperative to a fast and smooth response to a possible disaster. In this case, a utility outage includes water, electricity, gas, and internet. All are equally relied upon and, in some cases, equally devastating if lost (Cichonski et al., 2012). This section highlights some of the relationships necessary to help mitigate an outage of any type, a contact list of those responsible for each service, and a list of websites that can help if faced with an outage. 

Relationships 

1.1.1 Electric  

Electricity is a vital utility to our daily functions. With electricity, we gain internet connectivity, information system operability, HVAC systems, lighting, and many other services powered by this utility. Natural disasters such as thunderstorms, hail, floods, or intense winds can disrupt this service (Columbia, MO Natural Disasters and Weather Extremes, 2023). When an outage like this happens, who do we call? We use The City of Columbia Water and Light for this service.  

Since Columbia Water & Light is a local business, we have partnered with them to give back to our great community through food drives, Christmas events, bringing warm clothes to those in need, and cleaning up our city parks during the spring. We also offer them the use of some heavy equipment while, in turn, they offer us training and tips on proper and safe electric and water usage. Call the number for Columbia Water and Light highlighted in section 1.2’s table if an electrical outage happens. Also, their website is full of helpful information as well. 

1.1.2 Internet  

Besides electricity, at the heart of what we do is the internet. It is the backbone of our T3 software. It is also how we communicate and transfer data from location to location. It is also how our customers interact with us. We are currently using Xtream by Mediacom, which provides us with our high-speed internet connection. Due to our recent sign-up for their service, we have not established a direct relationship with Xtream and any of their team members. However, their call center has helped with setup and any issues we may have faced. Their website contains troubleshooting guides, how-to-videos, an outage map, and methods to contact them (Mediacom, 2023). If we ever encounter an outage, call the number in section 1.2’s table immediately. 

1.1.3 Natural Gas 

Natural Gas is an important service that provides our facility with heat, hot water, and a method to cook lunch in our break room. Ameren Missouri Gas (a St.Louis based company) is our service provider (Ameren Missouri Official Website, 2023). If we ever have an outage or detect a leak, you will find their number in section 1.2. 

1.1.4 Water 

We all need water to clean, keep cool, move sewage, and stay hydrated. This service may not seem as vital as others, but we need it daily. Therefore, it is essential to know who to call when faced with a water outage. In this case, The City of Columbia Water and Light provides us with our water needs. Their website offers knowledge on outages, water quality, water supply, water treatment, water distribution, and many other topics (City of Columbia – Official Government Website, n.d.). Most of the time, an outage will be caused by repairing pipes and, in some cases, a pipe bursting. However, these outages are few to far between, but if an outage occurs, you will find the number to Columbia Water and Light in section 1.2. 

Contact List 

Here is a list of service providers. In the event of an outage please contact the numbers seen here. If you do have internet access do not hesitate to pull up the provider’s website for troubleshooting info, other contact methods, or even real time update outage maps

(Down here was a chart of contacts, but that did not paste over)