Incident Response Planning with a vCISO

A virtual CISO can help organizations prepare for incidents before they happen, so when pressure is high and decisions must be made quickly; teams are not relying on memory or instinct alone. Instead, they are guided by a clear, practiced plan. But most importantly, a virtual CISO helps in preparing an Incident Response Plan.

According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report, organizations with an incident response plan in place reduce breach costs by an average of $2.66 million compared to those without one.

Preparation matters, not just technically, but operationally and financially.

Why a Plan Matters More Than a Policy in Incident Response Planning

A virtual CISO can support incident response in several ways, but the most important is helping an organization develop a practical incident response plan.

Many organizations focus heavily on policies. While policies may be required for regulatory or compliance reasons, policies alone do not guide action during a real incident. A policy explains what should exist. A plan explains what to do.

The plan is what’s important (unless you’re under regulatory requirements). And a good cyber security incident response plan will remind you of how to approach a cyber security incident. A plan is basically a framework to follow.

This distinction is important. During a live incident, teams are often tired, overwhelmed, and under pressure to restore operations quickly. Without a plan, organizations tend to skip essential steps, especially containment, jumping straight to recovery before the threat is fully understood.

…it’s really good to have a plan, because a plan is something that you stay calm, and you open up, and you’re refreshed on how to approach an incident. Because there are particular steps to take when you’re conducting or responding to a cyber security incident. Okay, we don’t want to overlook any of them.

-Tony Asher (CEO, Asher Security)

Steps in Incident Response planning with a vCISO

With the serge of Cybersecurity incidents, they have proven to test organizations in ways few other events do. They expose gaps in communication, decision-making, and leadership.

Even experienced professionals benefit from having a documented plan to rely on. A plan helps teams stay calm, focused, and consistent. It ensures that response efforts are methodical rather than reactive.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (Incident Response NIST SP 800-61) emphasizes preparation, containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident analysis as critical phases of incident response. Skipping or reordering these steps can significantly increase risk.

This is where a vCISO adds value by aligning your incident response plan template with NIST guidance while tailoring it to your organization’s size, industry, and risk profile.

1. Containment Comes First

One of the most common mistakes during incident response is rushing to restore systems or recover user access before the threat is contained.

So how can it be contained?

Cyber-attacks don’t need to be fully understood, where the attack is, where it is coming from, or what type of attack it is. Rather, it requires decisive action to limit damage. Whether the incident involves malware, ransomware, credential compromise, or insider misuse, containment must be the first priority.

A vCISO ensures your incident response plan clearly emphasizes containment and defines:

• Who has authority to isolate systems
• How access is restricted
• When external support is engaged

This structured approach reduces chaos and prevents incidents from escalating further.

How SIEM Supports Incident Response Planning

Your incident response plan is only as effective as the visibility supporting it. This is where SIEM  plays a critical role.

SIEM tools provide:

• Centralized log collection
• Correlation of security events across systems
• Early detection of anomalous behavior
• Evidence for investigation and reporting

When aligned with incident response with a vCISO, SIEM enables teams to quickly answer key questions:

• What happened?
• When did it start?
• Which systems and users are affected?
• Is the threat contained?

Without SIEM, incident response becomes slower, more manual, and far less accurate.

2. Tabletop Exercises: Turning Incident Resonse Plans Into Practice

The second major way a virtual CISO supports incident response is through tabletop exercises. This is a great free resource.

Tabletop exercises allow organizations to walk through realistic scenarios in a controlled environment. They test not only technical readiness, but also communication, escalation, and decision-making.

The Center for Internet Security (CIS) provides excellent free tabletop resources that many organizations use as a foundation. A vCISO helps facilitate these exercises by:

• Selecting relevant scenarios
• Asking the right questions
• Identifying gaps in response
• Improving documentation and workflows

Organizations that regularly conduct tabletop exercises respond faster and more effectively when real incidents occur.

Technical vs. Executive Tabletop Exercises

Incident response exercises typically fall into two categories:

Technical Tabletop Exercises

These focus on IT and security teams. They address questions such as:

• Where are logs stored?
• Are logs being collected correctly?
• Who investigates alerts?
• How do we escalate issues internally?

These exercises help validate SIEM visibility, alerting, and technical response workflows.

Executive (C-Level) Tabletop Exercises

These focus on business leadership. They address scenarios involving:

• Third-party incidents
• Data breaches
• Regulatory notifications
• Legal and reputational risk

For example, a business partner may report receiving a fraudulent invoice that appears to originate from your organization. This is not just a technical issue, it is a business, legal, and communications challenge.

Here are some of the ways people may respond to them:

• What needs to be done?
• Where to find the log files?
• Is there a system for recording log files?
• Who within the team would help as a part of our response team?
• Does the organization have anyone contracted to basically come in and assist with this event?
• What is the employee’s role and responsibility with liability insurance?
• At what point do the employees need to escalate and make sure the management notifies the executives?

A vCISO in Minnesota  facilitates these discussions to clarify roles, responsibilities, and decision authority at the executive level.

3. Regulatory and Legal Considerations

Incident response often extends beyond IT. Legal, compliance, HR, and communications teams must be involved.

According to Gartner, organizations that fail to meet regulatory notification timelines face increased fines, lawsuits, and reputational damage. A vCISO ensures your incident response plan addresses:

• Regulatory reporting requirements
• Customer and partner notification
• Engagement with legal counsel
• Documentation of remediation efforts

This holistic approach is essential for mature incident response in cybersecurity.

Why Virtual CISO Services Matter in Incident Response Planning

Not every organization has the resources for a full-time CISO, but every organization needs leadership during a crisis.

Virtual CISO services provide experienced guidance without the overhead of a permanent executive. For organizations working with a vCISO in Minnesota or supporting distributed teams, this model offers flexibility and expertise when it matters most.

A vCISO brings:

• Real-world incident experience
• Strategic oversight
• Alignment with NIST and best practices
• Integration with SIEM-driven detection

Incident Response & Handling Plan Offering

At Asher Security, we help organizations develop and refine their Incident Response & Handling Plan to ensure readiness before an incident occurs.

This includes:

• A customized incident response plan template
• Alignment with Incident Response NIST guidance
• Integration with SIEM security and logging
• Technical and executive tabletop exercises
• Ongoing refinement and maturity support

Preparation is not optional. It is a requirement for resilience.

Here is a real-time example from Tony Asher ( CEO at Asher Security) and a possible solution:

“A partner of your company emails you telling you that they’ve been hacked and they explain they recently received an invoice from you and it turns out the money went to a different account. I’ve been here and what happens is they’ll point the finger at you and they’ll tell you that you’ve been hacked and it’s your fault that they paid some bogus invoice. This is not a technology problem.

Technology will be involved in the C-level incident response exercises but it really does need to be a business stakeholder conversation.

• Who at the company will take the time to understand what happened, make a summary, and who is it that’s going to communicate with this partner, be a liaison to them?

Let’s pivot to a different scenario, let’s say that privacy records were stolen from your company.

• Who at your business has the responsibility to notify that privacy regulatory organization and report that?
• At what point do we notify the people that had their privacy data stolen?
• What types of things are we going to offer them?
• How do we set up a hotline? How do we set up an email account?
• How do we track our remediation efforts?
• How are we going to track costs?
• At what point should we escalate to outside legal counsel?

Those are good questions for the legal team.

Sometimes they want to handle them themselves. Oftentimes they’re very stretched the way they are and during an incident they really want to leverage outside counsel to come in and help with those types of things. So just to recap, number one, build an incident response plan.

Number two, conduct incident response exercises. Do them at a technical level and also do them at a C-level exercise. I hope that helps on how an incident response planning with your virtual CISO can help.”

Final Thoughts: Incident Response Planning with a vCISO

Cybersecurity incidents are inevitable, but chaos is not. With a clearly defined incident response plan with a vCISO, supported by SIEM visibility and practiced through tabletop exercises, organizations can respond with confidence rather than panic.

Incident response with a vCISO transforms response from a reactive scramble into a coordinated, disciplined process. Combined with strong SIEM capabilities and executive leadership, it allows organizations to reduce impact, recover faster, and emerge stronger after an incident.