Organising before the storm¶

Preparation is the backbone of effective incident response. A well-structured SIRT knows who does what, who to contact, and how to escalate.

Key actions:

• Define authority: Make it clear who can make decisions, approve communications, and trigger escalation.

• Document escalation paths: Identify when to bring in leadership, external partners, or regulators. Include contacts, methods, and expected response times.

• Maintain current contact lists: Ensure all team members and external partners can be reached quickly, including backups.

• Develop simple checklists: Include recurring incident types such as malware infections, system outages, or data breaches. Keep them concise, actionable, and easy to follow.Detect, respond to, and learn from security incidents effectively:

Best practices:

• Use visual maps for escalation paths—flowcharts reduce confusion.

• Test your structure periodically with tabletop exercises.

• Keep all documents versioned but lightweight—don’t overcomplicate.