.png)
Incident Response Framework: How to Prepare Before You’re Breached
- Ritu Chaudhary
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
In the world of cybersecurity, prevention alone is no longer enough. Attackers evolve daily, exploiting unknown vulnerabilities, human lapses, and supply-chain exposures. No system is ever completely immune — which means that preparation, not panic, defines the outcome when a breach occurs.
A well-structured Incident Response Framework (IRF) ensures that when the inevitable occurs, your organization responds with clarity and confidence — minimizing damage, preserving trust, and accelerating recovery.
What Is an Incident Response Framework?
An Incident Response Framework is a systematic, pre-defined plan that guides how your organization detects, analyses, contains, and recovers from a cybersecurity incident.
Think of it as your digital emergency playbook — outlining who does what, when, and how, so decisions are never delayed, and communication never breaks down during a crisis.
At Underscore, our approach to incident response is built around three integrated cybersecurity pillars:
Risk Management – To identify vulnerabilities and quantify exposure before they become exploits.
Threat Intelligence – To predict adversarial behavior through contextual data and analytics.
Compliance & Governance – To ensure your response aligns with regulatory, operational, and mission standards.
Together, these pillars make incident response not just reactive, but intelligence-driven and risk-aware.
Why Preparation Matters More Than Prevention
Most organizations invest heavily in perimeter defences — firewalls, antivirus tools, and monitoring systems. But when an incident occurs, few are truly ready to respond.
Without a structured IR plan, response often devolves into confusion:
Multiple teams act independently.
Logs are lost or tampered with.
Business operations halt without clear communication.
Preparation bridges this chaos with coordination. It defines escalation paths, aligns leadership with IT, and ensures your response is measured, not improvised.
Prepared organizations recover faster, preserve reputation, and often convert crises into opportunities to strengthen defences.
Underscore’s Six-Phase Incident Response Model
Underscore Cybersecurity’s framework is aligned with international standards such as NIST 800-61, ISO 27035, and CERT-IN guidelines. It incorporates automation, analytics, and experience into six practical stages:
Preparation – Readiness by Design
Preparation lays the groundwork for resilience.
Our approach includes:
Establishing an Incident Response Team (IRT) with clear roles and escalation paths.
Defining incident severity levels, reporting channels, and playbooks.
Simulating realistic cyberattacks to test detection and coordination.
Deploying SIEM/SOAR systems for real-time monitoring and automated alerting.
Ensuring documentation and communication templates are ready in advance.
At Underscore, we help organizations build readiness through customized risk assessments, control validation, and tabletop exercises — ensuring that when a breach occurs, the team acts, not reacts.
Identification – Detecting the Anomaly
You can’t respond to what you can’t see. Identification is about spotting the signal in the noise.
Using Threat Intelligence Analytics (TIA) and advanced correlation within SIEM systems, Underscore helps teams:
Detect suspicious activity across endpoints, cloud, and network layers.
Distinguish false positives from genuine threats.
Establish timelines of compromise with forensic accuracy.
Rapid identification enables early containment — often before damage is done.
Containment – Stopping the Spread
Once an incident is confirmed, every second counts. Containment focuses on isolating the threat before it escalates.
Our playbooks define both short-term and long-term containment strategies:
Quarantining affected systems and users.
Blocking malicious IPs or command-and-control servers.
Disabling compromised credentials.
Patching vulnerabilities and validating security baselines.
Through automation and orchestration, Underscore ensures that containment actions are consistent, traceable, and swift — reducing response time and operational disruption.
Eradication – Removing the Root Cause
Containment stops the bleeding; eradication removes the infection.
Underscore’s incident response experts conduct root-cause analysis to eliminate malware, close vulnerabilities, and prevent recurrence. This involves:
Deep forensic analysis of compromised systems.
Removal of backdoors and persistence mechanisms.
Comprehensive credential resets and access reviews.
Validation of system and configuration integrity.
Our teams leverage AI-assisted forensics and cross-layer visibility to ensure that when systems come back online, they are clean, hardened, and verifiably secure.
Recovery – Restoring Confidence
Once threats are eradicated, recovery focuses on bringing operations back to normal safely.
Underscore assists clients with:
Controlled restoration of systems and applications.
Continuous monitoring for residual indicators of compromise (IOCs).
Ensuring compliance with reporting obligations (CERT-IN, GDPR, or sector-specific norms).
Transparent communication with stakeholders to maintain trust.
A well-executed recovery plan transforms downtime into resilience — proving the maturity of your cybersecurity posture.
Lessons Learned – Evolving Through Experience
Every incident is a lesson in disguise. Post-incident reviews are not optional — they are the engine of continuous improvement.
Underscore’s methodology emphasizes structured review sessions, documenting:
Timeline of detection, decision, and action.
Effectiveness of existing tools and response protocols.
Gaps in visibility or communication.
Recommended policy, process, and configuration enhancements.
By turning every incident into intelligence, we help organizations adapt faster and strengthen continuously.
How Incident Response Integrates with Underscore’s Broader Ecosystem
Incident response is not a standalone process — it connects deeply with Underscore’s wider cybersecurity ecosystem:
Risk Management (ADA) – Quantifying and prioritizing risk exposure to optimize resource allocation.
Threat Intelligence (TIA) – Integrating predictive analytics to anticipate attacks.
Compliance Frameworks (UTA, SIA, ELA) – Ensuring every response aligns with legal and operational standards.
Together, these ensure that your incident response program is not just reactive, but strategic, measurable, and compliant.
Why Partner with Underscore Cybersecurity
At Underscore, we don’t just respond to incidents — we help organizations build muscle memory for resilience.
Our differentiators include:
✅ Integrated Risk-Intelligence Frameworks – linking detection, analytics, and decision-making.
✅ Automation-Driven SIEM/SOAR Response – reducing dwell time and human error.
✅ Cross-Domain Expertise – spanning enterprise, defence, and public-sector networks.
✅ Post-Incident Maturity Assessments – improving readiness after every event.
From early warning to forensic investigation, Underscore Cybersecurity partners with you every step of the way — ensuring that when a breach happens, your team is not just ready, but ahead.
Conclusion: Readiness Is the Real Defence
Cyber incidents are inevitable — but chaos is optional. A robust Incident Response Framework, built with clarity, practice, and intelligence, converts crisis into control.
At Underscore Cybersecurity, our mission is to help organisations prepare before they’re breached — by transforming visibility into foresight, and foresight into resilience.
Because in cybersecurity, true strength lies not in never being attacked — but in being always ready to respond.
Comments