Importance of Incident Response Planning

🔥 Cybersecurity Basics: Video #3 – Why You Need an Incident Response Plan (IRP) & Tabletop Exercises (TTX) 🔥 Hope is not a strategy. When a cyber incident hits, do you have a plan—or just good intentions? Too many businesses scramble to respond when a breach happens, wasting valuable time, money, and reputation. That’s why an Incident Response Plan (IRP) is essential. A well-prepared company doesn’t panic—it executes. 🔹 What is an Incident Response Plan? An IRP is your organization’s playbook for responding to cyber incidents. It outlines: ✅ Who does what when an attack occurs ✅ How to contain, investigate, and recover from a breach ✅ Legal and compliance steps to minimize liability ✅ Communication strategies to maintain trust with clients and partners But here’s the truth: A plan on paper isn’t enough. 🔹 Why You Need a Tabletop Exercise (TTX) A TTX is a realistic, scenario-based rehearsal where key stakeholders walk through a simulated cyberattack before it happens in real life. It helps your team: 🚨 Identify gaps in the plan before a crisis hits 🛑 Learn how to make quick, informed decisions under pressure 📢 Improve internal and external communication during an incident 🔄 Adjust and refine the IRP so it actually works when needed 🚀 What You Can Do Today: 1️⃣ Create or review your IRP—Does it cover all key threats? 2️⃣ Schedule a Tabletop Exercise—Even a basic walkthrough can reveal weaknesses. 3️⃣ Ensure leadership is involved—Cybersecurity isn’t just an IT issue. 📢 Has your company ever run an IR TTX? What was your biggest takeaway? Share your thoughts in the comments! 💻 About Me: Ever feel like cyber threats are a relentless game of whack-a-mole? One attack gets blocked, and another pops up? Whether you’re protecting a business, securing client information, or managing your firm’s reputation, you’ve worked hard to build your success. You shouldn’t lose sleep over hackers, breaches, or digital scams. 🌟 You’re the hero in this story, and every hero needs a guide. Someone who’s faced the cyber dragons 🐉 (yes, hackers) and can map the safest path forward. That’s where I come in. 🔐 With two decades as an FBI Special Agent investigating cybercrime and counterintelligence, I’ve fought these battles firsthand. Now, I help businesses stay ahead of cyber risks, protect client data, and investigate digital threats through Gold Shield Cyber Investigations and Consulting. At Gold Shield Cyber, I provide (among other things): ✅ Cyber-focused investigations ✅ Proactive monitoring ✅ IRP development & Tabletop Exercises for law firms Your story doesn’t have to include a cyber disaster. Let’s make sure it’s one of confidence, protection, and success. 📩 Visit www.goldshieldcyber.com or email me at darren@goldshieldcyber.com to start securing your firm. 🌟 Remember: You’re the hero of this story. I’m just here to hand you the sword. 🗡️ #CyberSecurity #IncidentResponse #TabletopExercise #IRP

After spending the past year leading ransomware incident response, I wanted to share some insights that you should be thinking about in relation to your organization. 1. Leadership clarity is non-negotiable. Multiple executives giving competing directions doesn't just create confusion - it directly impacts your bottom line. Every minute of misaligned leadership translated into increased recovery costs and extended downtime. 2. Trust your IR experts. Yes, you know your environment inside and out. But incident response is their expertise. When you hire specialists, let them specialize. I've seen firsthand how second-guessing IR teams can derail recovery efforts. 3. Master the time paradox. Your success hinges on rapid containment while simultaneously extending threat actor negotiations. If your leadership and IR partnership aren't solid (points 1 & 2), this delicate balance falls apart. 4. Global password resets are deceptively complex. Every human account, service account, API key, and automated process needs rotation. Without robust asset management and IAM programs, this becomes a nightmare. You will discover dependencies that you didn't even know existed. 5. Visibility isn't just nice-to-have - it's survival. Modern security tools that provide comprehensive visibility across your environment aren't a luxury. This week reinforced that every blind spot extends your recovery time exponentially. 6. Data gaps become permanent mysteries. Without proper logging and monitoring, you might never uncover the initial access vector. It's sobering to realize that lack of visibility today means questions that can never be answered tomorrow. 7. Backup investment is incident insurance. Organizations regularly lose millions that could have been prevented with proper backup strategies. If you think good backups are expensive, wait until you see the cost of not having them. 8. Protect your team from burnout. Bring in additional help immediately - don't wait. Your core team needs to be there for the rebuild after the incident, and running them into the ground during response isn't worth it. Spending money on staff augmentation isn't just about handling the immediate crisis - it's about maintaining the institutional knowledge and expertise you'll need for recovery. Remember: the incident ends, but your team's journey continues long after. #Cybersecurity #IncidentResponse #CISO #RansomwareResponse #SecurityLeadership"

Incident response doesn’t start when the alarm goes off. It starts WAY earlier. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with a team in healthcare who’s putting that mindset into practice. They’re using the #NIST #CybersecurityFramework to set a solid foundation and build resilience across their teams. We talked about how incident response isn’t just a plan on paper. It needs to be actionable. It’s a capability woven throughout the entire cybersecurity program (hear me out!). In #CSF terms... ◾Govern, Identify, and Protect are where the heavy lifting happens before anything goes wrong. That means defining roles, understanding what’s at risk, and putting protections in place to reduce the impact if something happens. ◾Detect, Respond, and Recover are about what happens when something does go wrong. This is where visibility, coordination, and restoration come into play. When we react we need to be fast, focused, and aligned with our business objectives. But here’s my takeaway: Resilience isn’t built in the moment, it’s built into the program. Interested in guidance on using the CSF for incident response? Did you know that #NIST has a pub for that?! Check out the recently updated SP 800-61r3 here! 👇https://lnkd.in/ezqP9rSx

Emergencies are unavoidable—fires, floods, shootings, cyberattacks. The only thing worse than an emergency is being unprepared for it. Just ask yesterday's "Worst Employer" nominee. A well-crafted Emergency Action Plan (EAP) keeps everyone safe and your business running. Here's 10 things to consider in creating one: 1./ Assess Your Risks Identify the emergencies most likely to hit you—whether natural disasters, workplace violence, or data breaches. Prioritize based on impact and likelihood. 2./ Get Employee Input Your employees are on the front lines and often spot risks management misses. Including their insights builds a better plan and fosters buy-in. 3./ Assign Clear Responsibilities Who calls 911? Who initiates evacuations? Everyone should know their role before an emergency strikes to avoid confusion in the heat of the moment. 4./ Map Out Evacuation Plans Chart exits, evacuation routes, and assembly points. Make sure everyone can evacuate safely, including employees with disabilities. 5./ Establish Communication Channels Use multiple methods—emails, texts, and phone trees. Keep clients, vendors, and other stakeholders informed, too. 6./ Stock Emergency Supplies First-aid kits, fire extinguishers, and flashlights are must-haves. Regularly check supplies so nothing fails in a real emergency. 7./ Plan for Business Continuity Know which processes must keep running and how to do it—whether remote work, cloud backups, or backup vendors. 8./ Stay Compliant Verify if OSHA or other laws require specific elements in your plan. Non-compliance can mean fines. 9./ Train, Drill, and Support Your Team Hold regular drills, offer training refreshers, and provide mental health support after stressful events. 10./ Debrief, Report, and Improve After every emergency or drill, debrief with your team. File necessary incident reports for OSHA or insurance. Assign someone to review and update the plan regularly. Emergencies aren't predictable, but your preparation should be. A well-thought-out EAP protects your people and helps your business bounce back as quickly and easily as possible.

Incident response tabletops and free throw practice... I still remember my high school basketball coach making us shoot free throws at the worst possible time... you know, right after full-court sprints, dripping with sweat, legs like jelly, heart pounding in our ears. Why? Because that’s what the game demanded. You don't shoot free throws in a vacuum. They happen after you've been bodying up defenders, sprinting in transition, making split-second decisions and often after a bad call or a costly turnover. You’re not fresh. You’re not focused. You're human. And the shot still counts. Now think about the last time your organization ran an incident response tabletop exercise. Let me guess... it was scheduled weeks in advance, everyone showed up with a coffee and a charged laptop, ready to "war game" the scenario in a controlled, distraction-free environment. That’s not how incidents work. Just like those free throws in the fourth quarter, real incidents hit when you’re tired, stressed, and juggling a dozen priorities. You’re mid-release. The lead engineer is out sick. Legal is in a negotiation. The chaos isn’t the exception, it’s the context. But we practice incident response like it’s a boardroom drill. That’s a mismatch. It’s like practicing clutch free throws in a quiet gym after yoga. You might look great in training, but the game will break you. What if we rethought tabletops the way my coach rethought free throw practice? Surprise timing: Don’t schedule it. Drop the scenario into Slack during a sprint review. Or in the middle of the monthly all-hands. Or when the entire team is at the RSA conference... Inject fatigue: Run it during the tail-end of a product launch cycle. Make the team context-switch from a real-world task. Create tension: Add distractions. Make people use the actual comms channels they’d rely on. Introduce uncertainty: some information is incomplete; some actors go silent. Track response time, decision quality, communication clarity. Debrief like you just lost the game on a blown play. From my experience, practicing under pressure builds muscle memory. The goal isn’t to simulate a perfect response, it’s to train the reflexes, the communication patterns, the trust in each other when things are at their worst. That’s what makes the best teams win under pressure. So, the next time you're planning an IR tabletop, ask yourself... Are we shooting free throws after wind sprints? Or are we fooling ourselves into thinking that calm, quiet practice will prepare us for the real game? #ciso #IR #basketball #tabletop