How should you respond to a suspected data breach involving CBP systems?

• A. Follow the Incident Response Plan, report to a supervisor, and preserve evidence and logs
• B. Ignore it and hope it resolves itself
• C. Delete all affected data immediately
• D. Notify the press to manage public relations

Answer: (A)

When you suspect a data breach, the priority is to act within the established Incident Response Plan. This plan guides you through detection, containment, eradication, recovery, and a post-incident review, ensuring a coordinated and timely response. The immediate actions you should take are to report the issue to your supervisor or the security team so it can be escalated to trained responders, and to preserve evidence and logs. Keeping evidence intact and not altering logs is crucial for an accurate forensic analysis, helps determine what happened, when it occurred, and who accessed or affected data, and protects the integrity of the investigation and any subsequent legal or policy requirements.

This approach is essential because it minimizes damage, ensures consistent handling across incidents, and supports proper documentation and compliance. Ignoring the breach delays containment and can widen exposure. Deleting affected data prematurely can destroy evidence and violate data retention policies. Public relations steps, such as notifying the press, are not appropriate at this stage and could create unnecessary risk or misinformation.