---

NIST Incident Response Lifecycle

NIST released updated incident response guidance in April 2025, emphasizing six key principles aligned with CSF 2.0:

Core Principles (CSF 2.0 Alignment)

1. Govern: Establish cybersecurity risk management strategy
2. Identify: Asset management and risk assessment
3. Protect: Implement appropriate safeguards
4. Detect: Develop and implement detection activities
5. Respond: Take action regarding detected incidents
6. Recover: Maintain resilience and restore capabilities

Incident Response Team Structure

NIST recommends expanding beyond traditional “incident handler” teams to include company leadership, legal teams, technology professionals, public relations teams, and human resources.

Core Team Roles:

• Incident Commander: Overall response coordination
• Security Analyst: Technical investigation and analysis
• Legal Counsel: Regulatory and liability guidance
• Communications: Internal and external messaging
• Management: Business decision making
• IT Operations: System restoration and hardening

Response Phases

Preparation

• Policies and Procedures: Documented response plans
• Team Training: Regular drills and exercises
• Tools and Resources: Incident response toolkit
• Communication Plans: Internal and external contacts
• Legal Preparations: Regulatory notification procedures

Detection and Analysis

• Event Detection: Monitoring and alerting systems
• Initial Assessment: Incident classification and scoping
• Evidence Collection: Forensic data preservation
• Impact Analysis: Business and technical impact assessment
• Stakeholder Notification: Management and team alerts

Containment, Eradication, and Recovery

• Short-term Containment: Immediate threat isolation
• Long-term Containment: Sustained threat mitigation
• Eradication: Root cause removal
• Recovery: System restoration and monitoring
• Validation: Verification of successful recovery

Post-Incident Activity

• Lessons Learned: Process improvement identification
• Documentation: Complete incident record
• Evidence Retention: Legal and compliance requirements
• Process Updates: Policy and procedure refinements

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

• Critical Process Identification: Essential business functions
• Recovery Time Objective (RTO): Maximum acceptable downtime
• Recovery Point Objective (RPO): Maximum acceptable data loss
• Dependency Mapping: Internal and external dependencies

Recovery Strategies

Site Recovery Options

• Hot Site: Fully operational backup facility
• Warm Site: Partially equipped facility (hours to days)
• Cold Site: Basic facility with infrastructure only
• Cloud Recovery: Virtual recovery environments
• Mobile Sites: Portable recovery facilities

Data Backup Strategies

• Full Backup: Complete data copy
• Incremental Backup: Changes since last backup
• Differential Backup: Changes since last full backup
• Continuous Data Protection: Real-time data replication
• 3-2-1 Rule: 3 copies, 2 different media, 1 offsite

Recovery Testing

• Tabletop Exercises: Discussion-based scenarios
• Functional Tests: Specific system component testing
• Full-Scale Tests: Complete environment simulation
• Regular Schedule: Annual or bi-annual testing
• Documentation: Test results and improvement plans

---