What is an incident response plan?
An incident response plan (IRP) is a documented framework that defines the procedures an organization follows to identify, contain, eradicate, and recover from security incidents.
IR plans translates incident response policy into operational guidance that teams can execute during an incident.
An Actionable Incident Response Plan Template
A quickstart guide to creating a powerful incident response plan - designed specifically for organizations with cloud-based deployments.
Benefits of an incident response plan
A well-defined incident response plan helps organizations respond to security incidents in a faster, more consistent, and less disruptive way.
Faster, more coordinated response: An incident response plan reduces confusion by clearly defining roles, escalation paths, and decision-making authority. Teams can act quickly without debating next steps while an incident is unfolding.
Reduced impact and recovery time: By standardizing how incidents are identified, contained, and resolved, an IR plan helps limit blast radius, shorten downtime, and speed up recovery across affected systems.
Consistent handling across incidents: An IR plan ensures incidents are handled the same way every time, regardless of severity or which individuals are on call. This consistency reduces errors and improves overall response quality.
Improved communication and accountability: Clear guidance on internal and external communication helps teams share accurate information with leadership, legal, and other stakeholders without delays or conflicting messages.
Stronger readiness and compliance posture
Documented incident response plans support regulatory, audit, and contractual requirements, while regular testing and updates improve organizational preparedness over time.
Components of an incident response plan
Experts recommend starting with an industry-recognized incident response framework to guide you through all the phases that must be included in any IR plan. That way, nothing will fall through the cracks. Recognized incident response frameworks include NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Special Publication 800-61, SANS Institute Incident Handler’s Handbook, ISO/IEC 27035, and MITRE ATT&CK.
Here, we’ll use NIST’s four-phase incident response lifecycle. Note that this is not the same as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), which provides a high-level structure for managing cybersecurity risk across an organization. Instead, the NIST incident response lifecycle outlines the steps involved in responding to a cybersecurity incident, as shown in the following diagram:
Preparation
Define incident categories and corresponding severity levels.
Assemble an incident response team, outlining roles, responsibilities, and reporting structures.
Establish and test communication channels for stakeholders.
Key security team responsibility: Develop and maintain incident response procedures and guidelines.
Detection and analysis
Monitor systems for signs of unusual activity.
Identify, verify, and gather data on suspected security incidents.
Gather and review data—using dashboards and other tools for optimum visibility—to determine incident scope and impact.
Key security team responsibility: Implement and maintain security monitoring tools to detect potential incidents.
Containment, eradication, and recovery
Isolate and contain affected systems to block further damage.
Eliminate the threat and restore system integrity.
Collect and preserve digital evidence.
Key security team responsibility: Work with technical teams (IT, operations) to implement containment measures and secure evidence.
Post-incident activity
Conduct a comprehensive incident review.
Document incident details and actions taken in response.
Implement improvements to enhance response to future incidents.
Key security team responsibility: Lead the post-incident review process and develop recommendations for improvement.
Incident response planning best practices
When creating a cybersecurity incident response plan, many teams miss some crucial best practices that can significantly enhance their preparedness and response effectiveness. Here are some often-overlooked aspects to consider:
1. Communication strategy
One of the most frequently overlooked elements is a comprehensive communication strategy. This should include:
Clear guidelines on who needs to be informed about a security breach
Specified communication channels to be used
Defined levels of detail to be provided to different stakeholders
Procedures for informing operations, senior management, affected parties, law enforcement, and the media
A thorough communication plan can eliminate confusion and speed up response times during an incident.
2. Centralized approach
Many organizations fail to implement a centralized approach to incident response. This oversight can lead to:
Analysts logging into multiple tools during an attack
Difficulty in correlating information from different sources
Delayed response times due to scattered data
Implementing a centralized incident response process where all relevant information is viewable in one place can greatly enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
3. Regular testing and drills
While many teams create incident response plans, they often neglect to put them to the test on a regular basis. Conducting realistic drills and exercises is crucial for:
Identifying gaps in the plan
Ensuring team members understand their roles
Testing the effectiveness of incident response tools
Adapting the plan based on lessons learned
4. Incident documentation system
Establishing a robust incident documentation system is non-negotiable. This system should include:
An incident handlers journal for each team member
Documentation of what happened, where it happened, who responded, how they responded, and the rationale behind their response
A system for gathering evidence that could be useful in potential lawsuits
Proper documentation not only helps in evaluating current efforts but also informs and improves future response strategies.
5. People-centric planning
Many incident response plans focus heavily on technical aspects and fail to provide clear-cut directions for the people involved. A comprehensive plan should:
Define roles and responsibilities for both technical and non-technical team members
Include leadership, communication, and regulatory support roles
Establish clear communication channels between technical teams and senior stakeholders
By addressing these often-overlooked aspects, organizations can create more robust and effective cybersecurity incident response plans, better equipping teams to handle potential security breaches.
Putting Your Incident Response Plan Into Action
A strong incident response plan only works if teams can quickly understand what happened, what is affected, and what to do next. In cloud environments, that depends on having accurate visibility, reliable context, and the ability to investigate and contain issues without slowing down response efforts.
Wiz supports incident response planning and execution by giving security teams a clear view of cloud risks, affected resources, and potential blast radius. By connecting vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, identities, workloads, and runtime activity in a single security graph, Wiz helps teams move from detection to investigation and remediation with fewer handoffs and less guesswork.
With cloud-native visibility, built-in investigation workflows, and incident response playbooks designed for real cloud environments, Wiz helps organizations execute their incident response plans more effectively, limit impact, and recover faster when incidents occur.
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