In OT cybersecurity, a swift and effective response to a security incident can mean the difference between a minor hiccup and a major catastrophe. But a successful response doesn’t happen by accident. It relies on a well-defined, practiced, and understood process.
Welcome to our “Tech Talk” summary, where we break down complex security topics to help you strengthen your threat hunting and security program. Today, we’re exploring the backbone of cybersecurity operations: the incident response (IR) process. We’ll examine the two most respected and widely adopted best-practice models: the NIST model and the SANS model.
While several frameworks exist, most modern incident response plans are built upon the foundations laid by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the SANS Institute.
When it comes to cybersecurity, preparation is more than half the battle—and that’s where the SANS Institute steps in. As a cornerstone of information security education, SANS dedicates itself to equipping organizations with the knowledge and training needed to face today’s complex threat landscape.
SANS offers incident response recommendations to help organizations:
By sharing proven tactics, comprehensive guidelines, and a wealth of educational resources—from blog articles to advanced training courses—SANS empowers security professionals to respond decisively and effectively. The goal is simple: make sure your organization isn’t just responding to incidents, but confidently steering through them.
NIST Special Publication 800-61, the Computer Security Incident Handling Guide, is a comprehensive document that outlines everything from creating an IR team to coordinating with external parties. At its core is a four-phase incident response lifecycle:
A key feature of the NIST model is its cyclical and flexible nature. The process isn’t strictly sequential. During the “Containment” phase, you may uncover new information that sends you back to “Detection & Analysis” to re-evaluate the scope. This feedback loop acknowledges the reality of complex incidents and builds resilience into the process.
The SANS Institute offers a similar six-phase model, affectionately known by the acronym PICERL:
As you can see, the core concepts are nearly identical to NIST. The primary difference is that SANS splits NIST’s “Containment, Eradication, & Recovery” phase into three distinct steps. This is largely a notational difference; the underlying intent and the goals of each stage remain the same across both frameworks.
So, how do you power up your SANS-based incident response plan and make sure it stands strong whether you’re defending a small manufacturing plant or a sprawling global OT network? Glad you asked. Here are tried-and-true best practices drawn from lessons learned across the industry.
Your team is the engine driving the entire process. Start by putting together a diverse group of cybersecurity professionals—incident handlers, forensic analysts, network engineers, and communications leads. Make training and tabletop exercises a regular rhythm so skills stay sharp and everyone’s comfortable hitting “go” when an incident strikes.
More importantly, empower the team to take initiative when seconds matter. Clear roles, authority to act, and well-documented escalation paths help avoid confusion during high-pressure events.
No firefighter runs into a burning building without a plan. Likewise, spell out your response procedures for each PICERL phase. This means detailed playbooks for containing ransomware, eradicating persistent threats, or restoring industrial control systems safely.
Keep these documents up to date with regular reviews. Lessons learned from post-incident debriefs and team feedback should feed directly back into your procedures. Agility beats bureaucracy every time.
Incidents rarely respect organizational boundaries. Identify your key external contacts in advance: vendors, MSPs, forensic firms, law enforcement, regulators, and even industry ISACs. Capture their contact info and clarify when and how to involve each party, considering legal and contractual obligations as well as regulatory reporting windows.
That way, when the pressure’s on, you aren’t lost in a sea of business cards.
Confusion is a common adversary during incident response. Establish a communication plan ahead of time—who needs to know what, when, and by whom. Make sure there are clear protocols for keeping executives, internal teams, and outside parties in the loop (and the press at bay, if needed).
Pre-approved messaging templates and designated company spokespeople ensure clear, controlled communication, minimize misinformation, and safeguard your organization’s reputation.
The identification phase hinges on your ability to notice trouble fast. Lean on technologies like IDS/IPS, SIEM platforms, and behavioral analytics to spot suspicious activity early. Pair these tools with continuous log monitoring and regular tuning to address the relentless arms race between defenders and attackers.
And remember, tools are only useful if your team knows how to wield them effectively. Regular drills keep everyone on point.
Compartmentalize critical systems and sensitive data so an attacker can’t waltz through your entire environment. Network segmentation helps contain incidents—think of it as shutting fire doors during a blaze. This not only limits the spread but simplifies incident investigation and recovery.
Don’t just extinguish fires—figure out why they started. Systematically analyze incidents using techniques like the five whys or fault tree analysis to uncover underlying weaknesses. This diligence is your ticket to implementing long-term fixes rather than band-aids.
When it’s time to bring systems back online, don’t rush. Validate backups, verify system integrity, patch known vulnerabilities, and test thoroughly before declaring victory. Only restore from sources you’re 100% confident are uncompromised—trust, but always verify.
Your final obligation is to capture lessons learned. Establish structured processes for documenting investigative findings, reviewing incident response performance, and communicating insights to all relevant stakeholders.
Regularly scheduled reviews (along with ad hoc ones after major incidents) ensure you’re not just surviving cyberattacks—you’re getting stronger after each one.
—
Putting these best practices into play is what transforms an incident response plan from a paper exercise into a living, breathing workflow that stands up to real-world chaos.
If you’re eager to sharpen your skills or deepen your team’s expertise, SANS has you covered well beyond its frameworks. Their educational portfolio is impressively broad and practical:
Together, these resources empower security teams not just to understand incident response in theory, but to master it in practice—an essential step in building resilience for today’s OT environments.
Let’s break down each phase, using the granular SANS model as our guide, to understand what it takes to succeed at every step.
This is the most critical phase, as it lays the groundwork for everything else. Success here depends on a balanced focus on People, Process, and Technology.
A robust preparation phase starts with building a qualified incident response team. This isn’t just about assembling a group of technical experts; it means creating a multidisciplinary team, each member bringing a unique skill set to tackle complex security challenges. Ensure everyone on the team is equipped with up-to-date training and that their skills are regularly refreshed—cyber threats evolve, and so must your team.
Empowering your team is equally important. They should have the autonomy to make swift decisions when needed, backed by clear procedural guidelines. This combination of empowerment and structure ensures the team can respond rapidly and effectively, minimizing the impact of any incident.
Prevention is also a key part of preparation. NIST emphasizes conducting risk assessments, hardening network and host security, and continuous training. These preventative controls reduce the likelihood of an incident and provide valuable data sources if one occurs.
Prevention is also a key part of preparation. NIST emphasizes conducting risk assessments, hardening network and host security, and continuous training. These preventative controls reduce the likelihood of an incident and provide valuable data sources if one occurs.
A solid communications plan is a vital supporting pillar of incident response. At its heart, the plan should ensure that information flows smoothly—internally and externally—during a high-pressure event. What should it cover?
Simply put, an incident response communications plan is your roadmap for “who says what, to whom, when, and how.” It prevents confusion, minimizes damage to your reputation, and supports a coordinated recovery.
Preparation isn’t just about internal teams and technology—it’s also about knowing who outside your organization needs to be in the loop when something hits the fan. Think of all the external contacts that might play a crucial role: service providers, suppliers, law enforcement (hello, FBI or local police!), regulatory authorities, industry consortia, and yes—even the media.
Why bother mapping this out ahead of time? Because when an incident erupts, the last thing you want is to scramble for contact info or debate who should call whom. Documenting your external stakeholders—along with when and how you should engage them—ensures:
Include up-to-date contact details and guidance on engagement for each, and revisit this list regularly—it’s amazing how quickly org charts and email addresses can change.
Key Metric: Mean Time to Detection (MTTD) – The time from when an attacker acts to when you detect it.
Once an incident begins, the goal is to find it quickly. Success requires:
Speed and accuracy in the Identification phase depend on modern, multilayered detection capabilities—not just good luck or a hunch. So, how do you get there?
Deploy the Right Detection Tools: Rely on solutions built for scale and complexity. Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms (think Splunk or IBM QRadar), and advanced threat protection suites are your best friends here. These tools correlate data, analyze patterns, and surface anomalies across vast data sets, helping you spot trouble faster than you could manually.
Automate Where Possible: The best detection setups automatically sift through millions of events, flagging only true threats for human review. This reduces alert fatigue and enables your team to keep pace with attackers.
Regularly Update, Tune, and Test: Detection is not a “set it and forget it” discipline. Keep your signatures, detection rules, and analytic models up to date. Routinely test your alerts against emerging threat techniques, so your team isn’t blindsided by new TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures).
Balance Technology with Human Insight: Even the shiniest tool requires skilled analysts behind the scenes. Pair regular training with the latest detection playbooks so your team can effectively investigate and act on alerts.
Done right, advanced detection shrinks the Mean Time to Detection (MTTD) and gives you a fighting chance to contain threats before they snowball.
Key Metric: Mean Time to Response (MTTR) – The time from the initial detection to full recovery.
This is where the active “response” takes place.
Network segmentation is a strategic powerhouse for effective containment. By dividing your network into discrete, well-defined zones, you essentially build firebreaks—limiting an attacker’s ability to move laterally. This means that if malware or an intruder breaches one area, it can’t easily pivot to more sensitive systems or critical data elsewhere.
For example, segmenting finance systems apart from user workstations or R&D resources ensures that a breach in one domain isn’t an express ticket to the company’s crown jewels. This not only slows down attackers and reduces potential damage, but it also simplifies your team’s job during a crisis. With clearly partitioned environments, incident responders can focus their containment efforts more precisely—quarantining only the affected segments instead of dragging the entire enterprise into lockdown.
Network segmentation, then, isn’t just “nice to have”—it’s a key defensive layer that gives your organization time and breathing room to respond before things snowball.
2. Eradication: Once contained, you must remove the threat from your environment. This could involve deleting malware, patching vulnerabilities, or even rebuilding systems from a known-good state. It’s crucial to be thorough, as sophisticated attackers often leave multiple backdoors.
3. Recovery: The final step is to restore the affected systems and bring business operations back to normal in a safe and timely manner.
Trusted recovery is the linchpin of an effective recovery phase. But what does that actually mean in practice? At its core, trusted recovery is about ensuring that all restored systems and applications are truly free from compromise—so you’re not just putting Humpty Dumpty back together, but making sure he’s not full of cracks.
Here’s what trusted recovery typically requires:
By following these steps, you maintain confidence in your operations and ensure that when business resumes, it does so on solid ground.
Stopping the symptoms of an attack isn’t enough—you also need to ensure it can’t happen again. That’s where root cause analysis comes into play.
Root cause analysis is all about digging beneath the surface to uncover how and why the breach occurred in the first place. Was it a misconfigured firewall, an unpatched vulnerability, a successful phishing email, or a process gap? Pinpointing the true culprit lets you address foundational weaknesses rather than just cleaning up after the fact.
A methodical approach is essential here. Techniques like the “Five Whys,” Ishikawa (fishbone) diagrams, and fault tree analysis are often used to systematically peel back the layers of contributing factors. These aren’t just academic exercises—they help eliminate guesswork and ensure fixes are robust, targeted, and sustainable.
By investing the time to get to the heart of the issue, you’re not just closing a single incident—you’re fortifying your entire security posture against repeat performances.
The incident isn’t over when the systems are back online. This final phase is essential for maturing your security program.
A structured approach to this phase goes beyond a one-off postmortem. Establish clear guidelines for gathering evidence, analyzing data, and documenting findings so they’re useful and actionable—not just for the current incident, but for the next one. Make sure your process includes:
By making post-incident activity a well-defined, repeatable process, you transform “lessons learned” from a checkbox exercise into a cornerstone of organizational resilience.
Both the NIST and SANS frameworks provide a proven roadmap for handling security incidents. By understanding and implementing these phases—from proactive preparation to diligent lessons learned—you can move from a reactive state of chaos to a structured, efficient, and constantly improving incident response program. This structure not only minimizes the impact of an attack but also builds a stronger, more resilient organization over time.
Need help building or refining your incident response plan? The experts at Insane Cyber are here to help. Contact us today to learn how we can strengthen your security posture.
Our products are designed to work with
you and keep your network protected.