Incident Response Plan Template
A comprehensive incident response plan template to help your organization effectively detect, respond to, and recover from security incidents. Minimize damage and reduce recovery time.
Incident Response Lifecycle
Preparation
Ongoing
Detection & Analysis
0-4 hours
Containment
2-8 hours
Eradication
8-24 hours
Recovery
1-7 days
Lessons Learned
7-14 days
Incident Severity Classification
Critical
Examples:
- • Data breach
- • Ransomware
- • Complete outage
High
Examples:
- • Account compromise
- • Malware infection
- • Service degradation
Medium
Examples:
- • Suspicious activity
- • Policy violation
- • Minor breach
Low
Examples:
- • Failed login attempts
- • Spam increase
- • Minor anomaly
Incident Response Team RACI Matrix
| Activity | Security Team | IT Team | Management | Legal/HR | External PR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Detection | R | C | I | - | - |
| Severity Assessment | A | R | C | I | - |
| Containment Actions | R | R | A | I | - |
| External Communication | C | - | A | C | R |
Communication Escalation Path
First Responder
Detects incident → Logs details → Notifies Security Team Lead
Security Team Lead
Assesses severity → Activates response team → Notifies IT Manager
IT Manager
Reviews impact → Approves containment → Notifies Executive Team
Executive Team
Makes strategic decisions → Approves external communications → Notifies Board if needed
Phase-by-Phase Response Checklist
Preparation
Detection & Analysis
Containment
Eradication
Recovery
Lessons Learned
Evidence Collection & Documentation
What to Collect:
- ✓ System logs (auth, application, network)
- ✓ Screenshots of suspicious activity
- ✓ Network traffic captures
- ✓ Memory dumps if malware suspected
- ✓ Timeline of events with timestamps
Chain of Custody:
- → Document who collected evidence
- → Record collection date/time
- → Use write-once media when possible
- → Create cryptographic hashes
- → Secure storage with limited access
Be Prepared for Any Incident
Download the complete incident response plan template with detailed playbooks, communication templates, and step-by-step procedures for common incident types.
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