Incident Responder

Overview

Provides a clear, actionable incident response playbook based on NIST / SANS phases (Preparation, Detection & Analysis, Containment, Eradication, Recovery, Lessons Learned). Includes severity classification, immediate containment checklists, evidence preservation, stakeholder notification templates (internal and external), forensic approach, root cause analysis template, and a post-incident review process.

When to Use This Skill

• A security incident is suspected or confirmed (credential leak, unauthorized access, data exfiltration, malware, etc.).
• Building or improving an incident response plan / runbooks.
• Training the team on how to respond to incidents.
• After an incident for the post-mortem.

Prerequisites

• An incident has been declared (or you are writing the plan in advance).
• Access to relevant systems (logs, cloud consoles, ticketing, communication channels).
• Pre-defined roles (Incident Commander, Communications Lead, Technical Lead, Legal, etc.).
• Contact lists and escalation paths.

Steps

1. Preparation (do this now, before any incident):

   • Define severity levels (Sev 1 Critical, Sev 2 High, Sev 3 Medium, Sev 4 Low).
   • Create on-call rotation and escalation matrix.
   • Pre-authorize certain containment actions (e.g., "Incident Commander can disable a user or revoke tokens without further approval for Sev 1/2").
   • Maintain "go bags" / runbooks and access to forensic tools.
   • Tabletop exercises.

2. Detection & Analysis:

   • Triage the alert or report.
   • Determine if it is a real incident (vs false positive or bug).
   • Classify severity.
   • Assemble the response team.
   • Start a dedicated Slack/Teams channel + incident ticket.
   • Preserve evidence (do not reboot, image disks if possible, export logs with timestamps, take screenshots of consoles).

3. Containment (short-term & long-term):

   • Short-term: isolate affected systems/users (disable accounts, revoke tokens, block IPs, take instances out of LB, enable WAF rules).
   • Long-term: patch, re-image, rotate secrets, improve detection.
   • Document every containment action with time and who performed it.

4. Eradication:

   • Remove malware, backdoors, unauthorized accounts, malicious code.
   • Patch vulnerabilities that were exploited.
   • Rebuild affected systems from known-good images where possible.

5. Recovery:

   • Restore systems from backups (verify they are clean).
   • Gradually bring services back online with increased monitoring.
   • Validate that the threat is no longer present (re-scan, re-authenticate users, etc.).
   • Monitor for re-compromise.

6. Lessons Learned / Post-Incident Review (PIR):

   • Blameless post-mortem within 1-2 weeks.
   • Timeline reconstruction.
   • What went well, what didn't, root cause (5 Whys or similar).
   • Action items with owners and due dates (fix the vulnerability, improve detection, update runbooks, training, etc.).
   • Update this playbook and other relevant docs.

7. Communication:

   • Internal: status updates at regular cadence (every 30-60 min for Sev 1).
   • External (customers, regulators, press): coordinated through legal/comms, factual, timely, empathetic.
   • Templates provided for initial notification, updates, and post-incident transparency report.

8. Output:

   • Incident severity matrix.
   • Immediate containment checklist (per common incident types: credential compromise, data breach, ransomware, supply chain, etc.).
   • Evidence preservation checklist.
   • Stakeholder notification templates (internal + customer).
   • Post-incident review template (timeline, 5 Whys, action items).
   • Sample runbook for "suspected credential leak".

Examples

A complete, ready-to-use incident response playbook with severity definitions, role definitions, containment checklists for the top 5 incident types a web company faces, notification templates, and a PIR template is included.

Edge Cases & Error Handling

• Legal / regulatory notification deadlines (GDPR 72h, state breach laws, etc.): Have legal pre-review the templates and know the thresholds.
• Ransomware: Do not pay without legal + executive approval; focus on containment and recovery from backups.
• Insider threat: Involve HR/legal early; preserve chain of custody for evidence.

Verification

1. The team can locate the playbook quickly when an incident occurs.
2. A tabletop exercise using a realistic scenario completes the full cycle (detection → containment → PIR) without major gaps.
3. After a real (or simulated) incident, the PIR produces actionable improvements that are tracked to completion.
4. Communication templates are used and feel appropriate.
5. Success: Incidents are handled methodically, damage is limited, evidence is preserved, stakeholders are informed appropriately, and the organization learns and improves.

References

• NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2 - Computer Security Incident Handling Guide
• SANS Incident Handler's Handbook
• Google SRE Incident Management
• FIRST Incident Response