Cybersecurity Incident Response Services

The six phases of incident response

Incident response is most effective when it is planned before an emergency. The commonly used lifecycle is preparation, identification, containment, eradication, recovery, and lessons learned. These phases are iterative: new evidence can change the containment decision, and recovery may require further investigation before systems are returned to service.

Preparation defines roles, communications, access to evidence, and the playbooks that help teams act under pressure. Identification separates genuine incidents from routine alerts. Containment limits the spread or impact of an event. Eradication removes the root cause where it can be established. Recovery restores operations safely. Lessons learned turns the experience into stronger controls and clearer procedures.

What to do in the first hour

Start with safety, service continuity, and evidence. Activate the right decision-makers, record the time of each significant action, and preserve relevant logs and system state. If isolation is required, do it carefully enough that the investigation can still establish what happened. Avoid wiping machines, deleting accounts, or making broad changes before the incident team understands the likely effect.

At the same time, identify the systems and data that may be affected, check whether sensitive services are still exposed, and establish a communications channel that does not rely on potentially compromised infrastructure.

Reporting and regulatory considerations

Reporting duties depend on the nature of the incident, the data involved, the organisation's sector, and the jurisdictions in which it operates. Indian organisations may have CERT-In or sector-specific obligations, while organisations serving overseas customers can also face contractual or international notification requirements.

An incident plan should identify who verifies obligations, who approves notifications, and how evidence is retained. Confirm the current legal and regulatory position during a live incident rather than relying on an old playbook.

Building an incident-response plan

An effective plan names the response roles, escalation path, communications owners, decision thresholds, evidence-handling approach, supplier contacts, and recovery criteria. It should also be exercised through tabletop scenarios that reflect the organisation's systems and likely threats.

Organisations with a Managed SOC can connect operational monitoring to a defined escalation process. A cybersecurity risk assessment helps prioritise the systems and data that response plans need to protect first.

After containment: improve the system

The close of an incident is a chance to improve. Review the timeline, root causes, control gaps, communication decisions, and recovery experience. Convert the findings into owned actions, then test whether the changes work. This keeps the response process useful long after the immediate emergency has passed.

Key Benefits

Frequently Asked Questions