A software vendor has announced a zero-day vulnerability that exposes an organization's critical business systems, following should be the information security manager's PRIMARY concern?
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A. B. C. D.C.
In this scenario, a software vendor has announced a zero-day vulnerability, which means that attackers have found and are exploiting a security flaw in the software before the vendor had the chance to patch it. As a result, the organization's critical business systems are exposed and potentially vulnerable to compromise.
Given this situation, the primary concern of the information security manager should be the adequacy of the incident response plan. An incident response plan is a documented set of procedures to address security incidents, including communication protocols, mitigation strategies, and incident reporting procedures.
In the case of a zero-day vulnerability, an incident response plan can help an organization quickly detect, assess, and mitigate the vulnerability's impact. An effective incident response plan will help minimize the potential damage to the organization's critical business systems and limit the scope and extent of the incident.
While business tolerance of downtime, availability of resources to implement controls, and ability to test patches prior to deployment are all important considerations, they are not the primary concern in this scenario.
Business tolerance of downtime may impact the organization's decision-making process regarding how quickly the systems need to be patched and whether the systems can be taken offline for patching.
The availability of resources to implement controls is a significant concern, as it may impact the organization's ability to quickly implement mitigation strategies to address the vulnerability. However, this is a secondary concern that can be addressed once the incident response plan is in place.
The ability to test patches prior to deployment is also an important consideration. However, it is not the primary concern in this scenario since the vulnerability is already being actively exploited, and time is of the essence. The focus should be on quickly mitigating the vulnerability rather than waiting to test the patch before deploying it.
In summary, the primary concern of the information security manager in this scenario is the adequacy of the incident response plan, which will help the organization quickly detect, assess, and mitigate the vulnerability's impact.