Software Engineering Institute

This three-day course provides current and future managers of computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) with a pragmatic view of the issues that they will face in operating an effective team.

The course provides insight into the work that incident management staff and managers may be expected to handle. The course also provides prospective or current managers with an overview of the incident handling process and the types of tools and infrastructure needed to be effective.

Technical issues are discussed from a management perspective. Topics include hiring staff, identifying critical information, publishing information, establishing effective working relationships, working with law enforcement, evaluating incident management services and operations, building service capacity, and the importance of pre-established policies and procedures.

The course incorporates interactive instruction, exercises, and role playing. During a simulated incident, attendees will gain experience with the type of decisions they might face on a regular basis. The course is continually updated with new management insights.

Before attending this course, participants are encouraged to attend the companion course, Creating a Computer Security Incident Response Team.

Note: There is some content overlap between the Managing CSIRTs course and the Foundations of Incident Management course. We recommend that attendees register for one course or the other, but not both. The Managing CSIRTs course focuses on incident handling issues from an operational management perspective and discusses best practices in sustaining an effective operation. The Foundations of Incident Management course covers process issues along with more technical topics such as phishing, email, and malware attacks, insider risk, and information sharing. The Foundations of Incident Management course is designed to introduce new incident handlers to the basic skills and processes they will need to perform incident handling work.

• managers who are interested in implementing or are required to implement a CSIRT or incident management capability
• managers who have responsibility or must work with those who do have responsibility for incident management activities
• managers who have experience in incident handling and want to learn more about operating effective incident management capabilities
• other staff who interact with incident management capabilities and would like to gain a deeper understanding of how they operate, potential services to provide, needed infrastructure for support, and incident management processes to establish. Other staff could include, for example, constituents, higher-level management, media relations, legal counsel, law enforcement, human resources, audit, or risk management staff.

This course will help participants to

• recognize the importance of establishing well-defined policies and procedures for incident management processes and the type needed
• understand incident management activities, including the types of activities and interactions that incident response teams may perform
• learn about various processes involved in detecting, analyzing, and responding to cybersecurity events and incidents
• identify key components needed for protecting and sustaining incident management processes, services, and operations
• manage and train a responsive, effective team of cybersecurity professionals
• evaluate incident management operations and identify performance gaps, risks, and needed improvements.

• incident management process
• hiring and mentoring incident handling staff
• developing supporting policies and procedures
• requirements for developing services
• handling media issues
• building and managing the incident management infrastructure
• coordinating response
• handling major or crisis events and incidents
• working with law enforcement
• evaluating CSIRT operations
• integration with insider risk processes or capabilities
• incident management capability metrics
• exercises:
  • triage
  • coordinating response
  • incident handling scenario

The course may be delivered virtually or in-person. In either case, materials will be provided to participants digitally through the SEI Learning Management System (LMS). Participants will be expected to download the materials and either print them or bring their laptop or mobile device with the materials on them. If laptops or other devices are brought, they may only be used during course lectures and exercises for course work.

This course has no prerequisites; however, prospective attendees may wish to consider attending the Creating a CSIRT one-day class.