In today’s threat landscape, the question for most organisations is no longer if a breach will occur but when. Being breach ready means having the structures, people and processes in place to respond effectively and minimise damage. A well-designed Incident Response (IR) plan gives your team a clear roadmap during a crisis, reduces confusion and accelerates recovery. Here’s how to build one that works in practice.

Understand your risks and critical assets

Start by mapping the assets, data and systems most critical to your organisation. This includes intellectual property, customer information, operational technology and cloud workloads. By assessing the impact of different incident types — from phishing and ransomware to insider threats — you can prioritise which scenarios to prepare for. Refresh risk assessments regularly to reflect new exposures, technology changes and regulatory obligations.

Assemble and train your team

An IR plan is only as strong as the people implementing it. Identify the core team: IT and security staff, legal counsel, communications, HR and senior leadership. Define roles, responsibilities and decision-making authority. Run regular training and tabletop exercises so people understand the playbook and coordination paths. Practising under realistic conditions reveals gaps and builds confidence long before an actual breach.

Define detection and escalation procedures

Speed is crucial. Your plan should specify how potential incidents are detected, reported and escalated. Integrate alerts from security monitoring tools, helpdesk tickets and third-party notifications. Set clear criteria for what counts as an incident versus an event, with timeframes for triage, investigation and management notification.

Establish communication protocols

Clear communication can be the difference between a contained incident and a public crisis. Outline internal notification paths and external obligations to regulators, customers, partners and the media. Prepare templates for breach notifications, press statements and board updates to ensure consistency under pressure. Agree in advance who will act as spokesperson and how legal review will work.

Partner with external experts

Even mature security teams benefit from outside support. Partnering with a specialist provider like Integrity360 gives you rapid access to experienced analysts, digital forensics expertise and practical guidance. Put service levels, contact lists and escalation paths in place before a breach so help is immediate when you need it most.

Integrity360’s Incident Response team

Integrity360’s dedicated IR team brings extensive experience across sectors and incident types. Services span the full breach lifecycle: 24/7 triage, investigation and digital forensics, containment and eradication, and secure recovery. The team also provides readiness assessments, playbook development and exercises to strengthen your capability before an attack. With this support, organisations reduce dwell time, limit financial impact and restore operations faster. Learn more: https://www.integrity360.com/incident-response

Keep it going and aligned to business goals

An IR plan is not a static document. Review it at least annually, after major business changes or following real incidents. Involve senior leadership and align the plan with your wider risk management strategy so incident response stays relevant, funded and actionable.

By investing time now to build and rehearse your Incident Response plan — and by partnering with experts like Integrity360 — you strengthen resilience, protect your reputation and show stakeholders that you take cyber security seriously. Breach readiness is an essential component of modern business continuity.