Incident response readiness
Review your policies, procedures and event logs so you are fully prepared when an incident hits.
What is an incident response readiness audit?
Incident response readiness audits assess whether your intrusion response processes exist and how mature they are (detection, availability and preservation of event logs and evidence, etc.). They aim to identify the gaps and confirm that your company can respond to an incident in the best possible conditions.
Objectives
These audits surface gaps along the following axes:
Availability, centralization and preservation of evidence
Maturity and awareness of incident response procedures
Training of technical teams and executives
The HELX approach
By reviewing your policies and configurations and holding targeted interviews with your teams, we identify the main areas where your security incident management can improve. At the end of the audit, you receive tailored recommendations to strengthen your response processes, improve crisis management and make sure the resources needed for a successful forensic investigation are in place.
Methodology
Incident response readiness audits rely on your documentation and conversations with your teams to review your internal policies, procedures and practices. Our audits follow the process below:
- 01
Document collection and review
Gather the key documents (information security policy, procedures, business continuity and disaster recovery plans, etc.) to check for formal incident response policies. Identify inconsistencies or gaps and verify that policies are backed by relevant technical measures.
- 02
Interviews and workshops
Workshops with the CIO, CISO and business teams to understand actual practices and how well procedures are known, clarify responsibilities and identify the gaps between the procedures on paper and how they are applied day to day.
- 03
Log coverage analysis
Assess whether critical logs (systems, applications, networks) are collected, centralized and analyzed well enough to support an investigation. Analysis and creation of a list of critical assets whose logs must absolutely be collected.
- 04
Summary and recommendations
Consolidation of observations and evidence to identify strengths and weaknesses. Prioritize the risks, propose concrete actions and provide tracking indicators to guide continuous improvement.
A bit of technical detail
Our incident response readiness audits identify what is missing for solid security incident management. We look at the following in particular:
- Existence of policies and procedures
- Assessment of roles and responsibilities
- Availability of logs
- Availability of detection capabilities
- Existence of recovery procedures
- Compliance with standards and regulations
- Training of technical teams
Our other strategic audits
Frequently asked questions
How much does the incident response readiness assessment cost?
A flat fee of €5,950 excl. VAT, covering seven days of expert work, with a 15% discount for small businesses, SMBs and non-profits.
What exactly do you assess?
Everything that will make the difference on the day: logging and log retention, backups that can actually be restored, escalation procedures, crisis contact list, ability to isolate systems and preservation of evidence.
We have never had an incident, is this a priority?
It is the right time. An incident costs ten to a hundred times more when nothing is prepared; the audit turns a future unmanageable crisis into a controlled procedure, and most of the fixes are cheap: configuration and organization.
Is this tied to the 24/7 coverage contract?
They complement each other: the audit prepares your organization, the contract guarantees our response time (SLA as fast as 2 hours). Many clients do both back to back.
Tell us about your project.
Let us talk through your needs and expectations and build the right service for you.