Forensically investigating a security breach while balancing the need Research Paper

Forensically investigating a security breach while balancing the need for business continuity and rapid return to normalcy within the organization - Research Paper Example So as to ensure the network security and security of information on the network, an organization has to have a response and investigation plan. There are many reasons as to why an organization should use a response and investigation plan. According to Vacca and Rudolph (2011), a response and investigation plan offers solutions to how hacking/intrusion attacks can be handled by the organization reducing damage and loss. This, however, builds confidence with the shareholders and helps cut losses that are as a result of hacking. With that in mind, this paper intends to provide a response and investigation plan for a large manufacturing Aspen Company with extensive intellectual property distributed across multiple locations in the United States and Latin America. There have been several recent small scale hacking/intrusion attacks that appear to be reconnaissance efforts for a larger scale attack. Reentry, the company faced an attack which affected its customer and shareholders data. Hacking/intrusion attack is not an issue that is going to go away anytime soon. As the internet grows, and more users come online, hackers and introducers want to have access to personal data or organization’s confidential information (Anson, Bunting, Johnson & Pearson, 2012). This means that Aspen Company has to be able to detect any act of hacking/intrusion done in their systems. So as to do so, there has to be a forensic response and investigation plan. The forensic response and investigation plan described in this section documents the procedures Aspen Company followed after their hacking/intrusion attack. The forensic response and investigation plan will include; determining the nature of the attack and evidence handling and documentation. Identifying the occurrence of hacking/intrusion attacks even if it is an IT-related issue cannot always be the sole obligation