The Incident Response Planning Working Group at the University of Toronto helps ensure the institution is prepared for cybersecurity incidents. Working under the Information Security Council (ISC), the group reviews and updates the university’s response plan, aligns it with crisis and continuity strategies, and develops exercises to strengthen readiness. It also promotes security awareness, evaluates risk mitigation options, and provides recommendations to maintain a resilient and secure digital environment.

1. Purpose
2. Mandate
3. Process
4. Timing
5. Membership

The purpose of the working group is to develop a set of recommendations as outlined in our mandate below and bring them forth to the ISC.

1. Review the existing Incident Response Plan on a regular basis.
2. Review current tools and capabilities – ability to prevent, detect, investigate and respond to an incident.
3. Engage the Crisis Management team to ensure alignment.
4. Ensure alignment with Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and Availability Planning.
5. Engage with an external consultant to review and provide guidance of our Incident Response Plan.
6. Ensure there is a section on crisis communications, including review of legal requirements (external consultation).
7. Evaluate cyber insurance and the alternative for retaining specific skills needed in event of a significant incident.
8. Develop a program around a table top exercise(s) and walk-through drill/simulation test (external vendor).
9. Provide input into the information security awareness program.
10. Conduct post-hoc reviews of measures taken in response to digital emergencies and/or breaches concerning digital assets and their remediation, and based on these, make recommendations for future responses (determine root cause and document lessons learned).

The working group will seek input from key stakeholders and other interested parties (i.e. faculties and divisions, crisis management team, communications team, central and divisional IT units). Its findings will be documented in the form of an interim report and a final report and will be presented to the ISC.

1. Initial meetings and consultations: TBD
2. Interim report submitted to the ISC: TBD
3. Final report submitted to the ISC: TBD