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Incident Response

When an incident hits,
every minute counts.

Whether you're in the middle of a breach or building the muscle memory before one, Principle Security delivers proactive IR planning and active response you can count on when it matters most.

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Active breach responseIR planning & playbooksTabletop exercisesForensics & root causeRetainer & project-based
4hr

Response SLA for retainer clients

Retainer clients get a guaranteed 4-hour response SLA. Not business hours — actual hours, any time, any day.

Before

Proactive IR planning

We build your IR playbooks, response procedures, and team readiness before an incident forces your hand.

Full-cycle

Contain, investigate, recover, report

We stay engaged from initial detection through post-incident reporting — no handoffs, no gaps in coverage.

IR services

A complete incident response capability — from building readiness before an event to active response when one is confirmed.

🚨

Active incident response

We mobilize rapidly when a breach is confirmed — containing the threat, preserving forensic evidence, and working in parallel to restore operations.

  • 24/7 remote response for retainer clients
  • On-site capability for critical incidents
  • Parallel containment and investigation tracks
  • Stakeholder and legal team coordination
  • Regulatory notification support
📊

IR planning & playbooks

We build the documentation, procedures, and decision trees your team needs to respond effectively under pressure — before the pressure arrives.

  • Incident classification and escalation criteria
  • Scenario-specific response playbooks
  • Communication templates (internal, legal, regulatory)
  • Contact directories and vendor coordination guides
  • NIST CSF and SOC 2 alignment
🎯

Tabletop exercises

Simulated incident scenarios that test your team's decision-making, communication, and coordination under realistic conditions — without real consequences.

  • Ransomware, data breach, and BEC scenarios
  • Executive and technical team formats
  • Board-level tabletop facilitation
  • Debrief with gap analysis and action items
  • Compliance documentation for SOC 2 / ISO 27001
🔍

Forensics & root cause analysis

Post-incident investigation to determine exactly how an attacker got in, what they accessed, how long they were there, and what your organization needs to do to prevent recurrence.

  • Log analysis and event reconstruction
  • Malware analysis and threat actor attribution
  • Attack path documentation
  • Forensic chain of custody for legal proceedings
  • Insurance and regulatory evidence packages

The response process

A disciplined, methodical approach that prioritizes stopping damage while preserving the evidence you need to understand what happened.

01
Detection & scoping
Hours 0–2
Confirm the incident, establish command, and define the blast radius. What systems are affected? What data is at risk? What is the threat actor still doing? Rapid scoping prevents premature containment actions that destroy evidence.
02
Containment
Hours 2–6
Isolate affected systems to stop lateral movement and data exfiltration — without triggering actions that tip off the attacker or erase forensic artifacts. Containment strategy depends on the threat type and business continuity requirements.
03
Investigation & forensics
Days 1–7
Deep investigation into how the attacker entered, what they did, and what they accessed. We reconstruct the attack timeline, identify all compromised credentials and systems, and determine whether data exfiltration occurred.
04
Remediation & eradication
Days 2–14
Close the entry point, remove malware and backdoors, reset compromised credentials, patch the vulnerabilities that were exploited, and harden the environment against recurrence. We verify clean state before any recovery action.
05
Recovery & post-incident reporting
Days 7–21
Restore operations in a verified clean environment, produce the incident report and forensic timeline, support breach notification requirements, debrief stakeholders, and update playbooks based on lessons learned.

Deliverables

Every engagement concludes with documentation that serves multiple audiences — technical, executive, legal, and regulatory.

Executive

Incident response report

A plain-language summary of what happened, the business impact, the actions taken, and the current risk posture. Written for boards, audit committees, and executive leadership.

Technical

Forensic timeline

A complete, evidenced reconstruction of the attack — from initial access to detection, with timestamps, tools, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by the threat actor.

Technical

Root cause analysis

Identification of the specific vulnerability, configuration weakness, or human factor that enabled the breach — with evidence and remediation verification.

Compliance

Evidence package

Documentation of the incident, scope, affected data, and response actions — formatted to support breach notification requirements, insurance claims, and regulatory inquiries.

Technical

Playbook updates

Post-incident revisions to your IR playbooks based on gaps identified during the response — so the next incident goes better than this one.

All teams

Post-incident debrief

Facilitated session with your team to review what happened, what worked in the response, what didn't, and what changes to prioritize to reduce future risk.


Common triggers

IR services span the full lifecycle — from building readiness before an incident to active response and post-incident recovery.

Active breach

You've detected indicators of compromise and need experienced responders now. Don't try to contain it alone — call us.

SOC 2 or ISO 27001 compliance

These frameworks require documented IR capabilities and tested procedures. We build the playbooks and run the tabletops that satisfy auditor requirements.

Pre-M&A due diligence

Buyers want evidence of mature IR processes. We establish and document your IR program before the diligence window opens.

Annual IR program refresh

IR playbooks age quickly. Threat actors change tactics, your environment changes, and your team turns over. Annual exercises and playbook updates keep readiness current.

Cyber insurance requirement

Many insurers now require documented IR plans and recent tabletop exercises as policy conditions. We provide the documentation they need.

Post-incident recovery

Something happened but the active phase is over. We conduct the forensic investigation, root cause analysis, and produce the documentation you need to close the loop.

In the middle of an incident? Don't wait.

Every hour of uncontained compromise increases data loss, regulatory exposure, and recovery cost. Our IR team is available now. For non-emergency IR planning, we're equally glad to help.