Tech wins best practices award for IT incident response plan

(L-R) Joel Wooten - Board of Regents Chair, University System of Georgia
Robert Clark - Director of Internal Audit, Georgia Institute of Technology
William Bowes - Vice-Chancellor for Fiscal Affairs, University System of Georgia
Thomas Meredith - Chancellor of the University System of Georgia

 

For the second year in a row, Georgia Tech has won one of eight awards in the Board of Regents’ Best Practices competition. This year Internal Auditing was cited for its Information System Incident Response Procedure in the Information Technology category.

The competition, which is in its second year, was developed with the intent of promoting and disseminating new and innovative institute-level practices among the schools of the University System of Georgia. Tech was the only research institution recognized this year, and is one of only four institutions that have been recognized by the Regents in both years for its best practices.

“Your institutions’ best practices, as well as many others that are not being singled out for recognition, can serve as models to help all USG institutions enhance operations, which is a key goal of the Board’s strategic plan,” said Chancellor Thomas Meredith.

The Regents received 76 entries from 27 institutions in the University System, including five from Georgia Tech, in four categories: Business and Finance, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and Information Technology. Each entry was reviewed by a peer group of senior management from across the University System. In each category, the first choice receives a $15,000 award, and the second selected program receives $10,000. In 2003, Financial Services and the Bursar’s Office received an award for their Student Web Invoice Statement.

“One of the key factors to the success of this model is the strong working relationships between several members of senior management,” said Rob Clark, director of Internal Auditing. “Colleagues at other institutions have remarked that information systems incidents are often thrown to the technologists to handle. The risk is that important perspectives of audit, legal, human resources, police, public relations and others may not be given appropriate consideration in responding. The model we have put in place ensures that these key participants are a part of an institutional response to information systems incidents and not just a unit-level response.”

Internal Auditing collaborated with the Office of Information Technology to develop a procedure to respond to information security incidents in an organized, efficient and consistent manner. When a significant information systems incident occurs, the model calls for the timely coordination between the director of Internal Auditing, Chief Information Officer, director of Information Security, Chief Legal Adviser, and as necessary, the associate vice president for Human Resources, Chief of Police, and executive director of Institute Communications and Public Affairs. This procedure has shortened the response time to security incidents from weeks to hours and made responses more consistent.

“As I have shared this model with other professional associations, in my leadership role within the Association of College and University Auditors, and as a member of the Security Task Force of EDUCAUSE, Georgia Tech is seen as an industry leader in this area. It is rewarding to know that Georgia Tech can provide a leadership role in establishing best practices within the University System as well. We are happy to share our insights and ideas in hopes that other institutions can benefit from our experiences,” said Clark.

Elizabeth Campell
Institute Communications and Public Affairs

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