Cyber incidents are occurring with greater frequency and severity, and are costing organizations more money. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, cyber attacks have more than doubled. And since 2017, the size of extreme financial losses has more than quadrupled, reaching $2.5 billion.
Companies of all sizes and industries rank cybersecurity resilience as their “most concerning environmental, social, and governance challenge,” according to the Allianz Risk Barometer. Data breaches are the most pressing concern. Cyber attacks on critical infrastructure and physical assets closely follow, along with increased ransomware and other malware attacks.
Knowing the benefits of an incident response plan and making sure your business has one are part of adopting a proactive approach to a cyber incident’s eventuality. Having a well-defined strategy lets organizations respond quickly and effectively to cybersecurity incidents, minimizing downtime and damage.
Why Your Business Needs an Incident Response Plan
Given the prevalence of cyber threats, the majority of businesses will at some point fall victim to an attack. Once an incident occurs, the affected organization could incur steep mitigation and recovery costs. Globally in 2024, the average cost of a data breach was $4.88 million—”the highest total ever,” per IBM research.
The biggest expenses fall into these four categories:
Breach Costs
The immediate costs associated with the suspension of services or theft of data can be significant. They could include the cost of identifying and containing a breach, a ransom demand (extortion demands have reached $5.2 million per incident on average), the costs of stolen or compromised intellectual property, and more.
Crisis Services Costs
Responding to a cyber incident will likely include hiring a breach coach legal professional, a forensics investigation team, and a breach notification service; providing free credit and ID monitoring to affected individuals; and conducting a public relations campaign to minimize reputational damage.
Legal Costs
Beyond legal defense costs and possible lawsuit payouts, cyber attack victims may face regulatory fines if found out of compliance with relevant legislation.
Business Interruption
Lost income due to business interruption and reputation damage is often impossible to quantify. Its impact, however, can persist for years after an attack.
What Is a Cyber Incident Response Plan (IRP)?
Cyber incidents can be devastating if the targeted organization doesn’t take the proper steps swiftly. An IRP helps it do just that.
The acronym IRP in cybersecurity stands for “incident response plan.” An IRP is a structured approach to managing and mitigating the impact of security incidents or breaches.
Think of IRPs as incident response playbooks. They outline protocols for minimizing damage, reducing recovery time and costs, and protecting your organization’s reputation.
The components of an effective incident response plan include:
- Roles and responsibilities of internal and external response teams
- Rules for assessing the severity of an attack
- Internal and external communication protocols
- Response sequences for contacting a breach coach lawyer, a forensics team, and law enforcement
- Breach notification procedures
- Recovery assessment exercises and suggested next steps
How an IRP Helps Protect Your Business
One of the main benefits of an incident response plan is its ability to help your business control the severity of an attack and avoid the worst financial consequences.
A thorough and accessible IRP also helps ensure valuable mitigation time isn’t lost to panic and confusion. Recovering quickly from an incident can help your organization resume normal operations faster.
An IRP also helps your company follow data security regulations. Legislation such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation Consumer Privacy Act and New York’s SHIELD Act are prominent laws companies must comply with or risk facing regulatory repercussions.
Finally, an IRP helps reinforce the trust an affected organization’s partners and patrons have in it. Your IRP demonstrates to business partners, cyber insurance providers, customers, and other stakeholders that your company takes cybersecurity seriously and is prepared to protect their interests.
How to Develop an Incident Response Plan
To develop an incident response plan for a cyber attack, first conduct a thorough risk assessment. Identify potential threats and vulnerabilities specific to your operations. Gather a diverse team of stakeholders, including IT, legal, compliance, and departmental representatives. They should discuss scenarios that could cause incidents.
Next, focus on building an incident response team. Detail each team member’s role and responsibilities to ensure efficient communication and action during an incident.
Then, your plan should outline step-by-step procedures for detecting, responding to, and recovering from incidents. It should also identify appropriate internal and external communication channels.
Finally, regularly test the plan. Run simulations and update the IRP based on evolving threats and lessons learned so you can be confident of its effectiveness in future incidents.
Build Your IRP with NetDiligence
Now that you’re more aware of the benefits of an incident response plan, get expert and experienced help preparing one for your organization.
At NetDiligence, we have over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity readiness. With our cloud-hosted solution, Breach Plan Connect®, we help companies simplify the process of constructing an effective IRP.
We crafted our IRP template in partnership with leading cyber breach lawyers, breach coaches, and computing forensic experts. Using our intuitive mobile app, incident response teams can easily customize the plan to suit their unique compliance and data security needs.
Don’t wait to start planning your response to incidents until one occurs.
Download our free PDF, Getting Started With Incident Response Planning, now. Then start your 30-day free trial of Breach Plan Connect to build your plan, explore incident response playbooks, and more!
