Incident Response Planning
When to use
Use this skill for incident response planning when you need to prepare roles and actions for a credible security incident. The expected result is an incident response runbook.
Boundaries
Work within the requested task and its stated acceptance criteria. Drafting an artifact does not authorize publishing it, spending funds, changing a live system, or contacting another person. Identify any such action separately before taking it.
Inputs
Inspect authorized scope, assets, trust boundaries, identities, logs, and threat model. Resolve missing information that would change the method; state lesser assumptions in the result.
Method
- Diagnose. Set written authorization, assets, trust boundaries, identities, sensitive data, and available telemetry.
- Decide. Prioritize findings by realistic exploit path and business impact.
- Produce. Build an incident response runbook from the inspected material; keep assumptions distinguishable from observed facts.
Decision rules
- Prioritize an exploit path with realistic preconditions; distinguish confirmed exposure from a theoretical weakness.
- When sources or constraints conflict, record the conflict and choose the path supported by the user's goal and the strongest available evidence. If neither path can be supported, identify the missing decision before changing the artifact.
Domain rules
- Keep testing within the stated authorization and minimize sensitive data exposure.
- State residual risk, detection coverage, and the accountable owner.
Verification
Rehearse detection, containment, and escalation. Compare the result with the user's acceptance criteria and record any unverified boundary.
Record safe reproduction, affected assets, impact, mitigation, retest result, residual risk, and owner.
Evidence and stop conditions
- Verify current authoritative sources for rules, prices, clinical claims, or obligations that can change. Distinguish fact, interpretation, and assumption.
- Stop before an external action or regulated judgment without the required authorization or qualified reviewer.
- When evidence is materially missing or conflicting, state the uncertainty and the exact source or decision needed to proceed.
Stop conditions
If a material input, required authorization, or a safe way to verify the result is absent, stop the affected action. Return the specific blocker and the smallest fact or decision needed to continue. Do not report an unrun check as passed.
Output
Provide an incident response runbook. Include the decisive evidence and actual verification result. Name any artifact location and unresolved issue that affects its use.
