Incident or IT alert management may not always be among the core discussions in organisations, but they are practised in several ways every day, not all of which may end up successfully. Incident management, if done right, can transform IT incident response teams from their reactive role to a more proactive one that focuses on improving the organisation’s security posture and achieving the expected ROI of their IT security investment.
So, what happens when things go wrong? Poor incident management causes tons of stress for IT teams and the organisations they support. Thus, despite having the proper software and tools in place, running practice sessions, and establishing the right protocols, a security incident still disrupts operations despite your IT team’s best efforts. Although they are fully capable of getting the incident under control, the impact of potential repeat incidents—reputational damage, legal actions, and high costs—will be long-lasting and profound. Just determining the why and what of such incidents takes time and effort.
Below are some of the most common issues enterprises face when their incident management tools and practices are deficient and do not get the attention they need. Understanding these issues can reveal insights that help improve the management of incidents before they develop into bigger concerns.
Lack of customisation
Many organisations make the mistake of adopting standardised incident management tools that are not specifically designed for their requirements or the context of their environment. These ready-made tools will ultimately be ineffective if not tailored to the organisation’s needs and other factors, such as its type of business, the threat levels it is at risk of, and the exposure it faces. If creating an incident management tool from the ground up is not feasible, then finding a tool that can adapt to different variables is the next best option.
Poor communication flow
The lack of a robust means of communication, communication strategy, and dissemination protocol is another factor that negatively affects IT incident management. It is not effective to combine conventional mediums like spreadsheets and emails with multiple messages related to different alerts, nor does it support collaboration since it tends to omit key personnel along the chain.
No incident prioritisation
Critical incidents can easily slip under the radar unless there are set prioritisation parameters. IT teams in most organisations are generally stretched thin already, making it harder to address a deluge of alerts. If critical incidents continue to be overlooked, issues will eventually snowball and have a bigger impact on a business and its operations. Some IT incident management tools fail at alert prioritisation since they cannot recognise alert severity, which is reason enough to consider replacing them with a better solution.
No focus on insider threats
No incident management system is ever complete without insider threat mitigation. IT leaders often hyperfocus on external threats and tend to overlook the fact that insider threats are just as serious. Hence, despite having a strong external perimeter, their security posture is still vulnerable by being ineffective against internal attacks.
Non-actionable alerts
Swift incident resolution requires knowing precisely what is wrong and being certain of which remedial steps are necessary to fix the problem. A good example of this is in aviation, where flight systems not only alert the pilot about issues affecting the aircraft but also provide an actionable checklist to address them. This cuts down on diagnostic time and helps IT teams move quickly towards ticket closure.
Conclusion
Given the numerous systems deployed in a typical organisation, alert management systems should empower IT teams to quickly resolve any issues that may disrupt daily operations, not stress them out and impede them from doing their work.
If your current alert management system is causing stress among your teams, consider switching to SendQuick’s impeccable enterprise IT alert notification solutions. Our comprehensive IT alert management system comes with all the must-have features of an alert system geared towards improving your incident management to ensure your daily operations and bottom line are secure.
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