“Why Wasn’t I Notified?”: Information Security Incident Reporting Demystified

Abstract

An information security incident, if successfully discovered and reported, initiates a distributed response process that activates a diverse collection of independent actors. Public officials, network service providers, information security companies, research organisations, and volunteers from all over the world can be involved; often without the participants realising whom they are working with. The cooperation is based on mostly informal bilateral arrangements and is aided by mutual trust accumulated over course of time. Each participant wants to limit their involvement and typically only assumes responsibility on their own actions. Information suggesting that third parties would be affected may or may not be followed up. The result is an unplanned mesh of bilateral information sharing and a formation of an ad-hoc network of partial stakeholders. No single entity exercises total control over the process, which makes it inherently uncontrollable and its results difficult to anticipate. This contrasts with the information security standards, where the process is expected to be well defined and under the control of a clearly stated leadership. The study suggests that internet-connected organisations should adopt a rather agnostic approach to information security incident reporting.