Back to BlogsCybersecurity

Incident Response Plan — What to Do When You Get Hacked

Anuj Singh (Admin) 31 March 2026 198 views

Incident Response — Your Hack Action Plan

When (not if) your organization gets hacked, a proper incident response plan is the difference between a minor incident and a catastrophic breach.

NIST Incident Response Framework

Phase 1: Preparation

  • ☐ Incident Response Team defined
  • ☐ Communication plan ready
  • ☐ Backup systems tested monthly
  • ☐ EDR/SIEM deployed and configured
  • ☐ Incident playbooks created

Phase 2: Detection & Analysis

  • ☐ Identify the attack vector
  • ☐ Determine scope of compromise
  • ☐ Collect and preserve evidence
  • ☐ Classify severity (P1/P2/P3/P4)

Phase 3: Containment

  • ☐ Isolate affected systems from network
  • ☐ Block attacker's IP/C2 domains
  • ☐ Preserve system images for forensics
  • ☐ Reset compromised credentials

Phase 4: Eradication

  • ☐ Remove malware and backdoors
  • ☐ Patch exploited vulnerabilities
  • ☐ Rebuild compromised systems
  • ☐ Verify clean state

Phase 5: Recovery

  • ☐ Restore from clean backups
  • ☐ Monitor closely for re-compromise
  • ☐ Gradually restore services

Phase 6: Lessons Learned

  • ☐ Post-incident report
  • ☐ Root cause analysis
  • ☐ Update security controls
  • ☐ Improve detection capabilities

Average Breach Costs

  • 💰 Global average: $4.45 million per breach
  • 💰 India average: ₹17.9 crore per breach
  • 💰 Organizations with IR plans save 58% in breach costs

🔥 Learn incident response at ONLY4YOU →

Want to Learn This Practically?

Subscribe to ONLY4YOU and get hands-on access to 40+ premium courses — Ethical Hacking, Kali Linux, Metasploit, Network Hacking, Bug Bounty & more!