Who makes the decisions during a cyber incident?
One named person, with a named deputy and the authority to act without a meeting. Decisions in an incident are urgent and uncomfortable: cutting the company off from the internet, stopping a production system, calling the police, telling customers. If nobody is clearly allowed to take them, hours are lost waiting for agreement. In most small companies the decision-maker is the managing director, advised by IT and an external responder; in larger ones an incident manager acts for the board within agreed limits. Write down which decisions this person may take alone and which need the board, and make sure the deputy can be reached when the leader is travelling. NIS2NIS2: the EU's second Network and Information Security directive. The EU cybersecurity law (Directive (EU) 2022/2555) that sets security and incident-reporting duties for many companies. also makes the management bodies of covered entities responsible for approving and overseeing cybersecurity risk-management measures, so the board should know the plan before it is needed.
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Terms used here
- NIS2 (the EU's second Network and Information Security directive)
- The EU cybersecurity law (Directive (EU) 2022/2555) that sets security and incident-reporting duties for many companies.