Incident Response

When a breach happens, every hour matters. Structured containment, forensic investigation, and rapid recovery — led by experienced advisors who have done this before.

Expert Response When Every Minute Counts

A security incident does not announce itself during business hours. It escalates before your team fully understands what is happening, and every hour of uncertainty expands the blast radius — more systems encrypted, more data exfiltrated, more regulatory exposure accumulating. The difference between a contained incident and a front-page breach is often measured in the quality of the first twelve hours of response.

Our incident response practice provides structured, expert-led response from the moment you identify an anomaly through full recovery and post-incident hardening. We operate across the complete NIST SP 800-61 incident response lifecycle — preparation, detection and analysis, containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident review — with clear communication to your leadership and legal counsel at every step.

We handle ransomware events, business email compromise (BEC), data exfiltration incidents, insider threat investigations, and cloud environment compromises. Our principals bring hands-on experience with the full spectrum of attack types targeting SMBs — we do not treat every incident like a large enterprise engagement, and we do not hand your case to a junior analyst once the contract is signed.

For organizations that have not yet experienced an incident, our IR Readiness Assessment and Retainer programs ensure you have a tested plan, practiced team, and a guaranteed response commitment in place before you need them.

60%
of small businesses that suffer a major breach close within six months
277
days average time to identify and contain a breach without an IR plan
$1.49M
average savings from having a tested incident response plan in place (IBM 2024)
72 hrs
GDPR and many state breach notification windows — the clock starts at discovery

"Incident response is not a service you want to be procuring during a breach. The organizations that recover fastest are the ones that hired their IR team before they needed them."

— Cybersecurity Group Advisory Team

Incident Types We Handle

Comprehensive incident response coverage across the full spectrum of threats targeting SMBs and mid-market organizations.

Ransomware & Extortion

  • Immediate containment to halt encryption spread
  • Forensic determination of initial access vector
  • Decryption and recovery path assessment
  • Negotiation advisory and legal coordination

Business Email Compromise

  • Compromised account identification and lockout
  • Mail rule and forwarding audit
  • Fraudulent transaction investigation and reporting
  • Identity provider and MFA remediation

Data Breach & Exfiltration

  • Scope and extent of data exposure determination
  • Regulatory breach notification obligation analysis
  • Evidence preservation for legal proceedings
  • Regulatory report preparation (HIPAA, PCI, state laws)

Cloud Account Compromise

  • AWS, Azure, GCP unauthorized access investigation
  • Rogue resource and crypto-mining detection
  • IAM access key and credential revocation
  • Cloud audit log analysis and timeline reconstruction

Insider Threat Investigations

  • User behavior timeline reconstruction
  • Data access and exfiltration path analysis
  • Forensically sound evidence collection for HR/legal
  • Access privilege review and immediate remediation

Malware & Supply Chain Attacks

  • Malware identification, analysis, and eradication
  • Compromised software and vendor assessment
  • Persistence mechanism identification and removal
  • Clean rebuild and environment restoration guidance

Our Incident Response Lifecycle

Structured, proven response aligned to NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2 — from initial triage through post-incident hardening.

01 — INITIAL TRIAGE

Rapid Assessment & Escalation Decision

Within the first hours, we assess the nature, scope, and severity of the incident. We establish a secure communication channel, assign an incident commander, and determine immediate containment actions. A preliminary incident declaration helps trigger your cyber insurance notification obligations on time.

02 — CONTAINMENT

Stop the Bleeding & Preserve Evidence

We isolate affected systems to prevent further damage while preserving forensic integrity. Containment strategy balances speed of isolation against the need for evidence preservation and business continuity. We coordinate with your IT team to execute containment actions safely and systematically.

03 — FORENSIC INVESTIGATION

Root Cause Analysis & Attack Timeline

We reconstruct the full attack timeline through forensic analysis of logs, memory artifacts, disk images, and network traffic. Determining the initial access vector, persistence mechanisms, lateral movement path, and exfiltrated data scope is essential for eradication and for any legal or regulatory proceedings.

04 — ERADICATION

Threat Removal & Environment Hardening

We remove all threat actor footholds — malware, backdoors, rogue accounts, and persistence mechanisms — and address the root cause vulnerability. Systems are hardened before return to service. Rushing this phase is the most common cause of re-compromise, and we do not cut corners here.

05 — RECOVERY

Validated Restoration & Business Resumption

Systems are restored from known-clean backups or rebuilt from scratch with validated configurations. We oversee the recovery process to confirm that no threat actor access remains, conduct monitoring to detect any re-intrusion attempts, and support your team through the return to normal operations.

06 — POST-INCIDENT REVIEW

Lessons Learned & Resilience Improvement

Every incident is a datapoint. We conduct a formal lessons-learned review to identify gaps in detection, response, and resilience — and translate those findings into a prioritized hardening roadmap. This phase also produces the incident report documentation required by regulators and cyber insurers.

IR Readiness & Retainer Options

The best time to hire your incident response team is before you have an incident. Our readiness and retainer programs guarantee a tested plan and a committed response team.

IR Readiness Assessment

Evaluate your current incident response capability against the NIST SP 800-61 framework. Identifies gaps in your plan, communication procedures, detection tools, and recovery processes before an event forces the issue.

One-time engagement · Typically 2–3 weeks

IR Plan Development

Build or rebuild your incident response plan from the ground up — including playbooks for your most likely incident types, communication trees, legal and regulatory notification checklists, and executive decision frameworks.

One-time engagement · Typically 4–6 weeks

Tabletop Exercise

A facilitated scenario-based exercise that walks your leadership and technical team through a realistic incident scenario — testing decision-making, communication, and escalation without real-world stakes.

Half-day or full-day format · Remote or on-site

IR Retainer Program Recommended

A standing retainer that guarantees a defined response time SLA, pre-positions our team with your environment documentation, and includes quarterly check-ins to keep the plan current. Many cyber insurers recognize IR retainers as a risk reduction factor at renewal.

Annual agreement · Fixed monthly retainer

Notification & Compliance Requirements

A breach creates immediate legal obligations. We help you understand and satisfy notification requirements across every applicable jurisdiction and framework.

HIPAA Breach Notification Rule
Covered entities must notify HHS and affected individuals within 60 days of breach discovery. Breaches affecting 500+ individuals in a state require media notification. We prepare the required documentation and help assess whether a breach meets the notification threshold.
State Data Breach Notification Laws
All 50 states have breach notification laws with varying thresholds, timeframes, and notification requirements. Florida's DBPR requires notification within 30 days. We map your incident to applicable state obligations and draft required notifications.
PCI DSS Incident Reporting
Payment card data incidents require immediate notification to acquiring banks and card brands. We support the PFI (PCI Forensic Investigator) coordination process and help prepare required evidence and reporting.
Cyber Insurance Claims Support
We prepare the incident documentation, forensic reports, and cost impact analysis required to support a cyber insurance claim — maximizing your recovery from your policy while you focus on restoring operations.

Frequently Asked Questions

How quickly can you respond to an active incident?

For clients on an IR retainer, we guarantee a defined response time SLA — typically same-day engagement with initial triage within hours of notification. For new clients during an active incident, we mobilize as quickly as possible; however, having a retainer in place before an incident will always produce a faster, better-coordinated response.

Should I contact my cyber insurer or an IR firm first?

Notify your cyber insurer as soon as you suspect an incident — many policies have notification requirements that start at discovery, and using a non-panel IR firm without carrier approval may affect your claim. If you have a retainer with us, verify that we are an approved provider under your policy during the retainer setup, not during the incident.

Can you help with ransom negotiation?

We provide advisory support during ransomware events, including assessment of decryptor viability, data exfiltration scope, and the decision framework around payment. We work in conjunction with your legal counsel and cyber insurer. We do not conduct financial transactions but coordinate with specialized negotiation services when appropriate.

What information should we preserve immediately during an incident?

Do not power off affected systems without guidance — volatile memory evidence is lost on shutdown. Preserve system logs, authentication logs, email records, and network flow data. Avoid remediation actions before forensic acquisition. Contact us immediately, and we will walk you through evidence preservation steps before your team takes any remediation action.

Do you work remotely or on-site?

The majority of incident response work is conducted remotely — modern endpoint detection, log analysis, and forensic tooling allows effective remote engagement in most scenarios. For situations requiring physical presence (e.g., air-gapped environment recovery, hardware forensics, or complex infrastructure restoration), we can arrange on-site engagement. We serve clients nationwide.

Get a Response Plan in Place Today

Schedule a no-obligation IR Readiness consultation. We will review your current plan, identify critical gaps, and recommend the right level of preparedness for your organization.