Domain 5: AI Incident Response and Recovery

Assessment of AI-specific incident response procedures, recovery capabilities, and business continuity planning

Domain Overview

AI Incident Response and Recovery focuses on the organization's ability to detect, respond to, and recover from AI-specific incidents and failures. This domain addresses incident response procedures, rollback capabilities, backup strategies, business continuity planning, post-incident analysis, and specialized training for AI incidents.

Effective incident response for AI systems is critical as these systems can fail in unique ways that traditional incident response procedures may not adequately address. Organizations must develop specialized capabilities to handle AI-specific incidents, including model failures, ethical breaches, and adversarial attacks, while ensuring business continuity and minimizing impact.

Assessment Areas

5.1 AI-Specific Incident Response Procedures

Evaluation of incident response procedures that address unique AI failure modes, security incidents, and ethical breaches.

Key Control: CIS Control 17, NIST CSF 2.0 (RESPOND function)

Organizations should develop and implement AI-specific incident response procedures that address unique AI failure modes, security incidents, and ethical breaches.

5.2 AI System Rollback Capabilities

Assessment of rollback capabilities for AI systems, including version control, configuration backups, and deployment automation.

Key Control: CIS Control 11, NIST CSF 2.0 (RECOVER function)

Organizations should implement and test AI system rollback capabilities, including version control, configuration backups, and deployment automation.

5.3 AI Asset Backup Procedures

Evaluation of backup procedures for AI assets, including models, training data, and configurations, with regular testing of restoration processes.

Key Control: CIS Control 11, ISO 42001 Section 7.5

Organizations should establish comprehensive backup procedures for AI assets, including models, training data, and configurations, with regular testing of restoration processes.

5.4 AI Business Continuity Planning

Assessment of business continuity planning that addresses AI system failures, including alternative processes and recovery time objectives.

Key Control: NIST CSF 2.0 (RECOVER function), ISO 42001 Section 6.1

Organizations should develop and test a business continuity plan that addresses AI system failures, including alternative processes and recovery time objectives.

5.5 AI Post-Incident Analysis

Evaluation of post-incident analysis processes for AI-related incidents, including root cause analysis, impact assessment, and improvement recommendations.

Key Control: CIS Control 17, NIST AI RMF (MANAGE function)

Organizations should implement post-incident analysis processes for AI-related incidents, including root cause analysis, impact assessment, and improvement recommendations.

5.6 AI Incident Response Training

Assessment of specialized training for incident response team members on AI-specific incident scenarios, including technical, ethical, and reputational aspects.

Key Control: CIS Control 17, NIST CSF 2.0 (RESPOND function)

Organizations should provide specialized training for incident response team members on AI-specific incident scenarios, including technical, ethical, and reputational aspects.

Compliance Considerations

AI-Specific Incident Types

AI systems can experience unique types of incidents that require specialized response procedures:

  • Model performance degradation or drift
  • Adversarial attacks targeting AI systems
  • Ethical breaches or biased outputs
  • Data poisoning incidents
  • AI system misuse or abuse
  • Unexpected AI behavior or decisions

Industry Standards

Several industry standards provide guidance on AI incident response:

  • CIS Controls (especially Control 17 - Incident Response)
  • NIST SP 800-61 (Incident Handling Guide)
  • ISO/IEC 27035 (Information Security Incident Management)
  • NIST AI Risk Management Framework
  • ISO/IEC 42001 (AI Management System)

Quick Assessment

Answer these key questions to quickly evaluate your AI incident response maturity:

Quick Assessment Result

Your organization appears to be at a basic level of AI incident response maturity.

Next steps: Develop AI-specific incident response procedures and implement basic rollback capabilities.

Take Full Assessment

Resources

Downloads

  • Incident Domain Checklist
  • Full Assessment Package
  • Question Matrix

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