ICS assets are collections of devices used to control, monitor, and supervise certain industrial processes. ICS environment usually resides on critical infrastructure dealing with very baseline of people’s needs, such as water, electricity, oil, public transportation, telecommunication, etc.

Managing the risk at its safest and most acceptable level within the ICS environment is one of the most critical aspects to be maintained from time to time. Therefore, the risk management becoming very crucial in all ICS operations due to ensuring the people’s safety is part of the license to operate. 

As part of preparing against the worst-case scenario across the entire ICS operations, each organization should develop its proper incident response management, to face the incident if it is happened. Some standards such as NISTIR 8428 cover the baseline approach of preparing an organization to develop proper incident response management for an ICS (OT) environment).

By having proper incident response management, it will increase response coordination in case an incident happen. Streamlining response efforts and reducing response time by providing a structured framework for incident management are the keys to facing the incident. Therefore, incident response management plays a vital role in enabling the organization to recover to the normal phase as soon as possible.

Another advantage of having proper incident response management in an ICS environment is the utilization of resources effectively, by optimizing the use of resources and personnel, minimizing redundancy, faster execution for each critical personnel, cost vs. time effectiveness, and be ability to recover immediately without sacrificing business continuity in the long run.

On top of the two reasons for the benefits of having a proper incident response, the effective decision-making process during the incident response will help the organization to have clear decision-making based on real-time information and based on situational awareness. Teamwork of each critical personnel will be higher since each person knows their responsibility and can react immediately based on the regulated procedures.

Overall, the incident response management in an ICS environment delivers many benefits by encouraging coordination, improving communication, ensuring security, and improving overall response capabilities in various emergency scenarios. The standard approach ensures that respondents can work together smoothly to mitigate the incidents properly, protecting the life, and ensuring business continuity is achieved in a timely manner.