A step-by-step guide to crafting an incident response plan

This post is based on the Hack The Box (HTB) Academy modules on Security Incident Reporting and Incident Handling Processes. These modules equip learners with the skills to accurately identify, categorize, and document security incidents, emphasizing real-world applications and best practices.

You can learn more by browsing the catalog of free or advanced cybersecurity courses on the HTB Academy! 

What’s an incident response plan?

An incident response plan acts as a set of instructions on detecting, responding to, and limiting a cybersecurity incident's impact. The incident response plan should provide clear guidelines for responding to multiple potential scenarios, including data breaches, DoS or DDoS attacks, firewall breaches, malware outbreaks, insider threats, data loss, and other security breaches.

This plan also acts as a checklist of the roles and responsibilities of an incident response team in the event of a security breach. This way, everyone knows what their job is when an incident occurs.

An incident response plan covers four main areas:

1. Preparation: Before the incident, plan how your teams will respond.

2. Detection and analysis: What tools and techniques do we use to find the root cause?

3. Containment, eradication, and recovery: What caused the incident, and how do we prevent it from going further? How do we fix this incident and prevent the next?

4. Post-incident activity: How can we do better next time?

We will talk more about each of these steps later in this post.

Incident response plans should adapt to your organization as different structures and regulations apply. 

Why is an incident response plan important? 

To respond to an incident quickly and effectively, you need an incident response plan in place.

The goal of incident response plans is to reduce the severity of an event and protect an organization as best as possible. An effective incident response plan can yield the following benefits: 

• Faster incident response time: Spot the early signs of an incident or attack, and use the right protocols to rectify any damage quickly. 

• Early threat mitigation: Speed up forensic analysis and mitigate the impact of unplanned events with a detailed plan.

• Better communication: Tell everyone what their responsibilities are, making it quick and simple to communicate the next steps.

• Regulatory compliance: Many regulatory bodies require that an incident response plan is in place. 

Part of the post-incident activity includes generating a report about the incident, which contains information about what caused the incident and what steps your team took to remediate it.

How do you report on an incident? 

An incident response report encompasses the process by which an organization handles a breach. It aims to quickly identify an attack, minimize damage, contain, and remediate the cause to reduce the risk of future incidents.

Beyond that, incident response reports act as a conduit between identifying and remediating threats. They serve to archive past incidents, providing an invaluable source of lessons learned from previous mistakes. The lessons can be seamlessly integrated into a broader strategy for preempting and mitigating future threats.

Incident response reports should be integrated into your response planning process, which we will cover in more detail below.

💡Recommended read: How to write an incident response report

How to implement an incident response plan in your organization

Now you know what an incident response plan looks like, how can you implement it in your organization? All cybersecurity teams must have a plan in place, and implementing it correctly is a crucial first step.

1. Preparation

Before any plan is put into action, you need to take stock of your current situation to lay the foundation for a successful incident response plan.

This involves ensuring that your incident response team is properly trained, that communications know what to do in an event, and employees receive basic cybersecurity training.

You could also conduct incident drill scenarios using tabletop exercises (TTX) and Capture the Flag (CTF) events to test your team’s capabilities. This helps to relieve stress, demonstrating everyone’s role before a breach happens.

2. Create the plan

You can then develop the incident response plan, based on our template later on. This may be done from scratch or improve upon an existing plan that’s already in place. 

This document will serve as your incident responder's bible, and so much be approved by senior executives and shared with the relevant teams. 

A senior leader should own this policy, making them the go-to for decision-making and communications. 

3. Define responsibilities

Now’s the time to form your A-team of incident responders. 

There are the essentials for an effective incident response team:

If your organization doesn’t have all of these team members on board, you must make the case for an effective incident response team. Not only it is a huge risk to the business not to have one, but it can impact financial and reputational aspects too.

4. Develop playbooks

Playbooks are a sequence of events and frameworks for how incident responders should act in different scenarios. For example, when an employee’s laptop is stolen, the playbook should contain the following steps:

1. Issue a remote command to wipe the device. 

2. Verify whether the laptop was encrypted. 

3. File a report.

4. Issue the employee with a replacement. 

These playbooks should be baked into your incident response plan, enabling your team to prioritize and act quickly, preventing wrong steps from being taken or an overreaction. 

Create as many playbooks as you think may be relevant. Consider also making a generalized playbook to cover incidents that don't fit under another playbook.

5. Create a communication plan

Your communication coordinator should be responsible for drawing up a communication plan for internal teams, external stakeholders, customers, and legal entities. 

This plan should define what steps need to be taken, depending on the severity of the incident and who has been impacted. This is vital for preventing misinformation from being spread and making the right people aware.

6. Test and update the plan

Now your plan is ready to be put to the test! You don’t need to wait for an incident, you can recreate your previous incident TTX, and see how the new plan has strengthened the process. 

Then, when a real incident occurs, your incident response team should follow the plan and report on any areas of weakness. 

The more incidents (and TTXes) that occur, the better your plan will become, with lessons being learned every time.

Incident response plan template 

Incident response plans should flex to your organization, but below are some key elements that you should use as a template to structure your plans and documentation. 

1. Purpose and scope 

The very first section of your incident response plan should define why the plan is in place and the extent of its coverage. 

The scope defines the types of incidents that the plan covers, the systems and data included, and the personnel who are part of the plan.

Some of the written policies and documentation should contain an up-to-date version of the following information:

• Contact information and roles of the incident handling team members, and alternates.

• Contact information for the legal and compliance department, management team, IT support, communications and media relations department, law enforcement, internet service providers, facility management, and external incident response team.

• Network diagrams.

• Organization-wide asset management database.

• User accounts with excessive privileges.

• Forensic/Investigative cheat sheets.