Incident Response Plan: Business Owner Overview

What Is an Incident Response Plan?

An Incident Response Plan (IRP) is a structured framework that guides your business through preparing for, detecting, and recovering from cybersecurity incidents. It serves as your roadmap during a crisis, outlining specific steps your team should take when facing a security breach or system compromise. For Montana businesses, an IRP is not just a good practice but an essential tool that helps minimize damage, reduce recovery time, and maintain compliance with state regulations.

What Does It Do For My Company?

• Creates a Clear Action Framework – Establishes step-by-step procedures for your team to follow during an incident, eliminating confusion and ensuring everyone knows their role and responsibilities.
• Protects Your Business Continuity – Implements containment strategies, backup systems, and recovery processes that keep your business running even when facing cyber threats.
• Ensures Regulatory Compliance – Helps your business meet industry-specific requirements for incident reporting and data breach notification

What is the Impact and Benefit for My Company?

• Reduced Downtime – When incidents occur, your business can respond quickly and efficiently, minimizing operational disruptions and getting back to serving customers faster.
• Protected Reputation – By handling incidents properly, you demonstrate to customers that their data and trust are valued, preserving your hard-earned reputation in your community.
• Lower Recovery Costs – A well-executed response plan can significantly reduce the financial impact of a breach by containing the damage early and preventing escalation.

What Do I Need to Implement?

• Incident Response Team should include representatives from IT, management, legal, HR, and communications. Even small businesses need designated roles—who makes decisions, who handles technical response, who communicates with customers and vendors. Document these roles clearly and ensure everyone understands their responsibilities.
• Response Procedures should cover different types of incidents. A malware infection requires different steps than a data breach or a ransomware attack. Your procedures should include immediate containment steps, evidence preservation requirements, and communication protocols.
• Communication Plans are often overlooked but critically important. Who needs to be notified when an incident occurs? What information can you share with customers? How do you coordinate with law enforcement or regulatory agencies? Having these decisions made in advance saves precious time during actual incidents.
• Recovery and Business Continuity planning ensures you can restore operations quickly. This includes backup systems, alternative work arrangements, and vendor relationships for emergency support. Test these plans regularly—you don’t want to discover problems during an actual emergency

Questions I Should Be Asking

1. How vulnerable is my Montana business to cyber threats compared to my current level of preparation?
2. What would the first 24 hours after a data breach look like for my company without a proper response plan?
3. How would an Incident Response Plan integrate with my existing business operations and affect my team’s daily responsibilities?

Why Granite?

Many local businesses partner with Granite for managed IT services and help desk support. Granite includes business reviews with all managed service agreements. These business reviews allow time for roadmapping, planning, budgeting, and developing technology plans together. Partner with Granite for your day-to-day technology support, and your long-term business plans.