The Six Phases of Incident Response
NIST defines six phases: Preparation, Detection, Containment, Eradication, Recovery, and Post-Incident Review. Most organizations fail at preparation and post-incident review.
Building Effective Playbooks
A playbook is a step-by-step decision tree for a specific incident type. Build playbooks for your most likely scenarios first:
- Ransomware activation
- Credential theft / account compromise
- Data exfiltration alert
- DDoS attack
Testing Your Plan
Run a tabletop exercise quarterly. Assign roles, simulate a realistic scenario, and time your response. Unexercised plans fail in real incidents.