An incident response plan establishes detection and escalation procedures, the response team and roles, containment and eradication steps, evidence preservation, notification obligations, and post-incident review.
Plans should be tested through tabletop exercises.
Alternative Names:
IRP, Cyber Incident Response Plan
Why it Matters?
The plan's value is decided in the first hours, when the questions are who has authority to disconnect systems, who contacts counsel and the cyber insurer, and who is authorized to speak externally. Plans naming roles rather than individuals survive turnover. Pre-identifying breach counsel and forensics providers matters because the insurer's panel requirements may restrict the choice, and discovering that during an incident wastes time.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What decides the plan's value?
Why pre-identify breach counsel?
