When a security incident strikes, you want to be prepared. This means knowing how to respond in the most effective and efficient way, while minimizing the “blast radius” and making the right business decisions. This is where a solid incident response plan can help.
Incident response plan templates help shorten the process of creating an incident response plan while ensuring best practices are baked in. In this article, we’ll walk you through the best free templates available today and explain how automation can help speed the incident response process.
An incident response plan template is a pre-structured format you can use to create your organization’s incident response plan. An incident response plan helps organizations respond effectively when a security incident occurs. It is a detailed document outlining the necessary steps to take before, during, and after an incident to mitigate damage and recover swiftly.
An incident response plan provides a systematic approach to managing the aftermath of a security breach or cyber attack. It aims to handle the situation in a way that limits damage and reduces recovery time and costs. An incident response plan template makes it easier to create a template by providing a framework that allows you to learn from the experience of other organizations or security professionals.
By taking an existing incident response template and adapting it to the unique needs and circumstances of any organization, you can quickly create an effective incident response plan.
Here are the key components typically included in an incident response plan template:
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When building your incident response plan, it is much easier to start with a template, remove parts that are less relevant for your organization, and fill in your details and processes. Below are several examples or templates you can download for free, which can give you a head start.
Created by: Cynet
Pages: 16
Main sections:
Created by: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Pages: 79
Main sections:
Learn more about NIST incident response
Created by: Berkeley University
Pages: 7
Main sections:
Created by: International Legal Technology Association
Pages: 5
Main sections:
Download .ASHX file (gated, requires registration or login)
Created by: Thycotic
Pages: 19
Main sections:
Get .DOC file (requires registration)
Created by: Sysnet
Pages: 11
Main sections:
Get .DOC file (requires registration)
Created by: California Government Department of Technology
Pages: 4
Contents: 17-step incident response procedure, referencing more detailed plans for specific incident types such as malware, system failure, active intrusion attempt.
Created by: I-Sight
Pages: 6
Main sections:
Ready to build your own incident response plan? Here are the best practices we recommend following:
Incident response templates and procedures are crucial, but they are not enough. In most organizations there is a critical shortage of security staff. It is impossible to review all alerts, not to mention investigate and respond to all security incidents. Statistics show that the average time to identify and remediate a breach is over 100 days.
To help address this problem, the security industry is developing tools to perform automated incident response. An automated tool can detect a security condition, and automatically execute an incident response playbook that can contain and mitigate the incident. For example, upon detecting traffic from the network to an unknown external IP, an incident playbook runs, adding a security rule to the firewall and blocking the traffic until further investigation.
By supplementing manual incident response with automated playbooks, organizations can reduce the burden on security teams, and respond to many more security incidents, faster and more effectively.
Tips From the Expert
Cynet provides a holistic solution for cybersecurity, including Cynet Response Orchestration (SOAR), which can automate your incident response. You define automated incident response playbooks, with pre-built remediation procedures for multiple attack scenarios. When an attack scenario occurs, the relevant playbook is automatically executed. Only if there is no matching playbook, the incident is pushed to the security team for a manual response.
Cynet Response Orchestration can address any threat that involves infected endpoints, malicious processes or files, attacker-controlled network traffic, or compromised user accounts.
Learn more about Cynet Response Orchestration.
In the event of a cyberattack, data breach, or IT disruption, having a structured plan in place ensures that your team knows exactly what to do, who is responsible for what, and how to contain and recover from the incident. This minimizes damage, panic, stress, downtime, and data loss. Sometimes, an incident response plan is also a compliance requirement.
Start by selecting an incident response plan that aligns closely with your industry, size, and risk profile. Then, tailor it to your organization’s specific infrastructure, tools, and regulatory obligations. Involve stakeholders from IT, security, legal, HR, and executive leadership to ensure the plan is comprehensive and reflects real-world operational realities. Finally, conduct tabletop exercises regularly to reinforce familiarity and improve response time.
Small business templates tend to focus on simplicity, affordability, and scalability. They often provide basic structures with fewer personnel roles, lighter documentation, and less reliance on complex tools or third-party integrations. Enterprise-grade templates are far more granular and complex. They account for distributed teams, multiple departments, regulatory nuances, extensive IT infrastructure, and the need for automation and integration with existing security stacks.
An incident response plan is the overarching document that outlines your organization’s overall strategy and process for handling security incidents. A playbook dives into the “how” for specific incident types. For example, you might have separate playbooks for phishing, ransomware, insider threats, or data breaches.
Starting with a downloadable template is the better approach, especially for teams that are creating their first incident response plan or lack the in-house expertise to build one from the ground up. Then, invest in refining it to make it your own.
Your incident response plan should be reviewed and updated at least annually. More frequent updates are advisable if your organization is going through major changes. For example, if you adopt new technologies, restructure teams, onboard third-party vendors, or experience a significant incident, your plan should be immediately reassessed to reflect those changes.
The SANS Institute is a private organization established in 1989, which offers research and education on... READ MORE
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