incidentresponsprocedures

Incident response procedures are a documented set of processes and roles used to identify, respond to, contain, eradicate, recover from, and learn from incidents that affect information systems, networks, or business operations. The objective is to limit impact, restore services, protect data, and improve security posture through lessons learned. Effective procedures align with organizational policies, risk management, regulatory obligations, and vendor requirements.

Phases commonly included in incident response procedures:

- Preparation: establish the incident response team, plan, runbooks, tools, and training; define communication channels and escalation paths.

- Identification and reporting: detect potential incidents, classify severity, and determine scope; document indicators of compromise and timeline.

- Containment: implement short-term actions to prevent further spread and preserve evidence; plan for longer-term continuity if needed.

- Eradication and recovery: remove root causes, apply patches or mitigations, restore systems, and monitor for recurrence.

- Post-incident review: conduct root cause analysis, capture lessons learned, update playbooks, and report findings to stakeholders.

- Continuous improvement: track metrics, refine controls, and adjust training and technology to reduce future risk.

Key elements include clearly assigned roles and responsibilities, incident classification and escalation protocols, evidence handling and preservation, a communication plan for stakeholders and regulators, thorough documentation, and tested playbooks or runbooks. Access control and documentation standards support repeatability and audit readiness.

Standards and frameworks often referenced with incident response procedures include NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2, ISO/IEC 27035, and industry best practices; many programs also leverage MITRE ATT&CK to map attacker techniques to response actions. The expected outcome is recovery of services, formal incident reporting, regulatory notifications where required, and ongoing improvements to security controls.