What is Incident Response?
Incident Response (IR) is the organised process by which an organisation responds to a Cybersecurity incident, such as an attack, data breach or system compromise.
The aim: respond quickly to limit damage, restore systems and prevent recurrence.
Incident Response is essential for organisations dealing with Ransomware, DDoS, Phishing, insider threats, OT disruptions or notifiable data breaches (e.g. under NIS2 or AVG). The team that tries to resolve the incident is the Incident Response Team (IRT).
🎯 Why is Incident Response important?
- Limits damage during an attack or breach
- Speeds up recovery of affected systems or production
- Complies with laws and regulations (such as notification to the NCSC, CSIRT or regulator)
- Supports forensic investigation
- Improves security measures through lessons learned
🧭 The 6 phases of Incident Response
According to best practice (NIST, ISO):
- Preparation
- Incident Response Plan, team, contact lists, tools, training
- Detection & identification
- Via SIEM, SOC, alerts, user reports
- Classification & analysis
- What is the nature, scope and impact of the incident?
- Containment
- Stop further spread (isolate the system, block network traffic)
- Eradication & recovery
- Remove the cause, restore systems and monitor afterwards
- Evaluation / Lessons Learned
- What happened? What can be improved? Report, learn and improve your process
📦 What counts as an “incident”?
| Example | Category |
|---|---|
| Ransomware that takes down a production environment | Malware / OT incident |
| External access via stolen password | Social engineering |
| Network traffic to suspicious IPs | Command & Control (C2) |
| Personal data leak | Privacy incident / GDPR |
| Unsecured VPN access | Configuration error |
| Sabotage of a PLC process | OT safety / sabotage |
🛠️ Tools that help with Incident Response
- SIEM (Security Information & Event Management)
- EDR / XDR (Endpoint/Extended Detection & Response)
- Asset Inventory and Vulnerability Management
- Firewall/IDS/SOC for detection and containment
- Forensic tools (e.g. Volatility, FTK)
- Incident Response Playbooks & templates
✅ Benefits of good Incident Response
- Faster detection and recovery
- Lower costs and impact of incidents
- Better preparation for audits or notification obligations
- Improved resilience against recurrence
- Transparency towards regulators or supply chain partners
🏭 Incident Response in OT environments
- The impact on physical processes and safety is often greater
- Incidents can lead to production downtime or environmental damage
- Collaboration between IT, OT, engineering and safety teams is essential
- Specific protocol knowledge is required, such as Modbus, DNP3, SCADA
📌 In summary
Incident Response is the coordinated process for responding quickly and effectively to cyber incidents. It is essential for damage limitation, recovery and continuous improvement of your security strategy.