With rising cyberattacks and evolving regulatory scrutiny, organizations can no longer afford to treat incident response as a reactive “check-the-box” activity. Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) Safeguards Rule, having a well-documented and regularly tested incident response plan (IRP) isn’t just a best practice—it’s a legal requirement.
Why the Incident Response Plan Matters Under GLBA
The GLBA Safeguards Rule, updated in 2021 by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), requires that covered financial institutions implement administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect customer information. A critical component of this is having a written incident response plan (IRP) designed to respond to security events that could involve unauthorized access to sensitive customer data.
An amendment to the Safeguards Rule, effective May 13, 2024, requires covered companies to notify the FTC of certain data breaches and other significant security events.
Non-compliance enforcement is heating up as regulators are looking for more than just written policies. Failing to prepare can lead to fines, reputational damage, and regulatory action, as seen in recent FTC enforcement cases, such as Marriott International.
In December 2024, the FTC finalized an order that required Marriott International and its subsidiary, Starwood Hotels, to enhance their digital security following three data breaches that occurred from 2014 to 2020 that affected over 344 million customers globally. As part of the settlement, Marriott agreed to a $52 million payment and must certify compliance with the FTC annually for 20 years and conduct an independent, third-party assessment every two years.
Key Elements of a GLBA-Compliant IRP
We’ve compiled actionable steps you should take to build an incident response plan that not only meets GLBA standards, but also strengthens your organization’s security posture.
To align with the GLBA and evolving cybersecurity expectations, your IRP should include the following components:
- Clear Roles and Responsibilities
A successful IRP starts with clearly defined roles.
- Establish your Incident Response Team (IRT), including representatives from IT/security, legal, compliance, communications, executive leadership, and key business units.
- Designate a response lead to coordinate all activities and ensure decisions are documented and timely.
- Maintain up-to-date contact information for internal teams, including internal stakeholders, legal counsel, forensics teams, and external vendors.
- Use role-based titles and responsibilities instead of the names of current team members (e.g., “Privacy Officer” vs. “John Smith”) to ensure the plan is functional even when team members change.
- Incident Definition and Classification
Not every security event qualifies as a reportable incident under GLBA, but some can trigger mandatory disclosures.
- Define “security incident” to include criteria like unauthorized access to customer information, system compromise, or policy violations.
- Describe how incidents are identified, reported, and escalated.
- Integrate monitoring tools and logging solutions for faster detection.
- Detection and Reporting Procedures
Early detection is critical to minimize the impact and ensure timely compliance with reporting obligations.
- Monitor activities and sensitive data with tools like Security Information and Event Management (SIEMs), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDRs), and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions.
- Consider adding AI-driven anomaly detection tools to enhance early warning capabilities.
- Ensure all employees know how to report suspicious activity. A secure, well-publicized channel (e.g., internal hotline or email alias) should be available for employees to use.
- Set response thresholds to determine when alerts should be escalated to the IRT.
- Containment and Eradication
Once an incident is confirmed, rapid action is essential to prevent further damage.
- Isolate impacted systems by disconnecting infected endpoints, revoking compromised credentials, or geofencing suspicious traffic.
- Use predefined playbooks with detailed immediate steps for common incident types—ransomware, phishing, insider threats, business email compromise (BEC), etc.
- Engage external experts when needed (e.g., cyber forensics or incident response retainer partners).
- Investigation and Root Cause Analysis
Understanding what happened is essential for remediation, reporting, and prevention.
- Perform root cause analysis (RCA) to identify what control failed, if it was a technical flaw, user error, or process gap.
- Identify any failures in security controls and recommend remediations.
- Require detailed documentation of the breach’s origin, method, and impact
- Document everything, including timelines, decisions made, systems affected, and data involved.
- Remediate vulnerabilities through patching, reconfiguring, or retraining as needed to prevent recurrence.
- Customer Notification Procedures
GLBA and various state laws require notifying affected individuals—and sometimes regulators—within specific timeframes.
- Provide templates and guidance for GLBA-compliant notifications to affected individuals and regulators. Use notification templates that are clear and transparent.
- Coordinate with legal counsel to determine when notification is legally required.
- Ensure procedures reflect the updated FTC Safeguards Rule amendment (that went into effect on May 13, 2024), which mandates reporting certain breaches within 30 days.
- Maintain a matrix of breach notification laws by state/jurisdiction.
- Make sure the timing aligns with both GLBA and relevant state-level breach notification laws.
- Post-Incident Review and Improvements
An incident should always end with an opportunity to improve.
- Conduct a “lessons learned” session within 7–10 days of the incident closing.
- Update the IRP to reflect changes in processes, systems, or teams.
- Report insights to executive leadership and the board.
- Maintain a centralized log of incidents and postmortems for trend analysis.
- Revise the IRP based on findings, and test for future readiness.
- Testing and Training
An incident response plan is only effective if it’s actively tested and validated by staff at all levels, not left to gather dust.
- Run tabletop exercises frequently, preferably at least twice a year, to simulate both technical and communication aspects of a breach.
- Include senior leadership in executive simulations.
- Train employees on how to recognize and report incidents and escalate suspicious activity.
- Track participation and adjust training based on post-exercise feedback.
Avoid These Common Mistakes
Even the best-written plan can fail if it’s not maintained or executed properly. Watch out for:
- Outdated contact lists, unassigned roles in your plan, or plans that haven’t been reviewed in over a year.
- Having contacts lists in only soft or hard copies.
- No documentation during an incident makes post-event reviews difficult.
- Lack of communication strategy with stakeholders, customers, and regulators.
- Failure to involve leadership in planning and post-incident actions.
Building Resilience, Not Just Compliance
A GLBA-compliant IRP is more than just a document—it’s a living strategy that ensures you can respond quickly, communicate clearly, and recover with minimal impact. As regulatory expectations increase, a strong, frequent, and thoroughly tested IRP can help you stay compliant and earn trust from your leadership.
Need help designing or testing your IRP? Our team of experts specializes in GLBA compliance and incident response readiness.
Give your team the tools to stay GLBA-compliant. CampusGuard’s GLBA Awareness training course equips your employees with the practical knowledge to protect sensitive personal information and reduce the risk of data breaches.
Contact us to learn more and get started.
