Given the chances that any one incident will have adversely affected your mail servers, it is vital to plan for off-line information exchanges via telephone. First, in keeping with the idea of concentration of effort, it means establishing a command centre for incident handling. A primary point of contact should be appointed, so that other IPCs know whom to liase with. As well, the centre should be able to call on a list of qualified personnel who have previously been identified and assigned specific incident handling responsibilities. Given the likelihood that an incident will require some form of public relations, this list of qualified personnel may also include individuals assigned responsibility for working with media contacts.
Information exchange requires planning and infrastructure.
For instance, all members of an on-line exchange network will need common passwords and signed encryption keys. Off-line communications may be handled on secure telephone links and dedicated trunk lines. Telephone and email contact lists should be disseminated so that all members of the network know whom to contact in the event of an emergency. To ensure uniformity of data, members must report incidents according to a standard procedure. This is especially true in light of the sensitivity of the information being shared.