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Incident Response Plan

Version: 1.0
Last Updated: 2026-01-14
Status: Active

Overview

This document outlines CreditNexus's incident response procedures for security incidents, data breaches, and system outages. All team members must be familiar with these procedures.

1. Incident Classification

Severity Levels

Critical (P0)

  • Definition: Active security breach, data exfiltration, or complete system outage
  • Response Time: Immediate (< 15 minutes)
  • Examples:
    • Unauthorized access to production database
    • Active data breach with confirmed data loss
    • Complete application unavailability
    • Ransomware attack

High (P1)

  • Definition: Potential security breach, partial system outage, or significant vulnerability
  • Response Time: < 1 hour
  • Examples:
    • Suspected unauthorized access
    • Partial system outage affecting critical features
    • Critical vulnerability discovered in production
    • Credential compromise

Medium (P2)

  • Definition: Security concern, minor outage, or non-critical vulnerability
  • Response Time: < 4 hours
  • Examples:
    • Security misconfiguration discovered
    • Minor feature outage
    • Medium-severity vulnerability in dependencies

Low (P3)

  • Definition: Informational security finding or minor issue
  • Response Time: < 24 hours
  • Examples:
    • Low-severity vulnerability
    • Minor configuration issue
    • Informational security scan finding

2. Incident Response Team

Roles and Responsibilities

Incident Commander

  • Primary: CTO / Lead Developer
  • Responsibilities:
    • Coordinate response efforts
    • Make critical decisions
    • Communicate with stakeholders
    • Escalate as needed

Security Lead

  • Primary: Security Team / Senior Developer
  • Responsibilities:
    • Assess security impact
    • Coordinate security fixes
    • Manage vulnerability disclosure
    • Document security findings

Technical Lead

  • Primary: Senior Developer / DevOps
  • Responsibilities:
    • Investigate technical root cause
    • Implement fixes
    • Restore services
    • Monitor system health

Communications Lead

  • Primary: Product Manager / CTO
  • Responsibilities:
    • Internal communications
    • Customer notifications (if required)
    • Regulatory reporting (if required)
    • Public relations (if required)

3. Incident Response Process

Phase 1: Detection and Identification

  1. Detection Sources:

    • Security monitoring alerts
    • User reports
    • Automated security scans
    • System monitoring
    • External security researchers

  2. Initial Assessment:

    • Classify severity (P0-P3)
    • Identify affected systems
    • Assess potential impact
    • Document initial findings

  3. Immediate Actions:

    • Notify Incident Commander
    • Activate response team (if Critical/High)
    • Begin incident logging
    • Preserve evidence (logs, snapshots)

Phase 2: Containment

Short-term Containment

  • Goal: Stop the incident from spreading
  • Actions:
    • Isolate affected systems
    • Revoke compromised credentials
    • Block malicious IPs/domains
    • Disable affected features (if needed)

Long-term Containment

  • Goal: Maintain system availability while fixing root cause
  • Actions:
    • Implement temporary fixes
    • Monitor for continued activity
    • Prepare for remediation

Phase 3: Eradication

  1. Root Cause Analysis:

    • Investigate how incident occurred
    • Identify all affected systems
    • Document attack vectors
    • Review security controls

  2. Remediation:

    • Remove threat actors
    • Patch vulnerabilities
    • Update security controls
    • Implement additional safeguards

Phase 4: Recovery

  1. System Restoration:

    • Restore from clean backups (if needed)
    • Verify system integrity
    • Re-enable services gradually
    • Monitor for anomalies

  2. Validation:

    • Verify fix effectiveness
    • Test system functionality
    • Confirm no residual threats
    • Document recovery steps

Phase 5: Post-Incident

  1. Lessons Learned:

    • Conduct post-mortem meeting
    • Document timeline and actions
    • Identify improvements
    • Update procedures

  2. Follow-up Actions:

    • Implement preventive measures
    • Update security controls
    • Train team on lessons learned
    • Review and update this plan

4. Communication Procedures

Internal Communications

Critical/High Severity

  • Immediate: Slack/Email alert to incident response team
  • Within 1 hour: Status update to all team members
  • Ongoing: Regular updates every 2-4 hours

Medium/Low Severity

  • Within 4 hours: Notification to relevant team members
  • Daily: Status updates until resolved

External Communications

Customer Notifications

  • When Required: Data breach affecting customer data
  • Timeline: Within 72 hours (GDPR requirement)
  • Content:
    • What happened
    • What data was affected
    • What we're doing
    • What customers should do
    • Contact information

Regulatory Reporting

  • GDPR: Report to supervisory authority within 72 hours
  • DORA: Report significant incidents per regulatory requirements
  • Other: As required by applicable regulations

Public Disclosure

  • When: Significant security incident affecting users
  • How: Blog post, security advisory, or press release
  • Content: Transparent, factual, non-alarmist

5. Specific Incident Types

Data Breach

  1. Immediate Actions:

    • Identify scope of breach
    • Determine data types affected
    • Assess number of affected users
    • Preserve evidence

  2. Containment:

    • Revoke compromised credentials
    • Isolate affected systems
    • Block unauthorized access

  3. Notification:

    • Notify affected users within 72 hours
    • Report to regulatory authorities (if required)
    • Provide credit monitoring (if applicable)

Unauthorized Access

  1. Immediate Actions:

    • Revoke compromised credentials
    • Review access logs
    • Identify accessed resources
    • Change all potentially compromised secrets

  2. Investigation:

    • Determine entry point
    • Review all accessed data
    • Identify any data exfiltration

  3. Remediation:

    • Patch vulnerabilities
    • Implement additional access controls
    • Enhance monitoring

System Outage

  1. Immediate Actions:

    • Assess scope of outage
    • Identify root cause
    • Implement workarounds (if possible)
    • Communicate status

  2. Recovery:

    • Restore services
    • Verify data integrity
    • Monitor for stability

  3. Post-Outage:

    • Root cause analysis
    • Implement preventive measures
    • Update runbooks

Vulnerability Disclosure

  1. Receipt:

    • Acknowledge within 24 hours
    • Classify severity
    • Assign to security team

  2. Assessment:

    • Verify vulnerability
    • Assess impact
    • Plan remediation

  3. Remediation:

    • Develop fix
    • Test thoroughly
    • Deploy fix
    • Credit researcher (if applicable)

6. Incident Logging

Required Information

  • Incident ID: Unique identifier
  • Severity: P0, P1, P2, or P3
  • Type: Data breach, unauthorized access, outage, etc.
  • Detection Time: When incident was detected
  • Reported By: Who reported the incident
  • Affected Systems: List of affected systems
  • Impact Assessment: Number of users/data affected
  • Timeline: Key events and actions
  • Resolution: How incident was resolved
  • Lessons Learned: Improvements identified

Logging Tool

  • Primary: GitHub Issues (private repository)
  • Backup: Internal documentation system
  • Format: Use incident response template

7. Escalation Procedures

Escalation Path

  1. Level 1: Incident Commander (CTO/Lead Developer)
  2. Level 2: Executive Team (CEO, CTO)
  3. Level 3: Board of Directors (for critical incidents)
  4. Level 4: External (Legal, PR, Regulatory)

Escalation Triggers

  • Critical severity: Immediate escalation to Level 2
  • Data breach: Escalate to Level 2 within 1 hour
  • Regulatory requirement: Escalate to Level 4
  • Public disclosure needed: Escalate to Level 4

8. Training and Testing

Training

  • Frequency: Quarterly
  • Content:
    • Incident response procedures
    • Role responsibilities
    • Communication protocols
    • Security best practices

Testing

  • Frequency: Semi-annually
  • Types:
    • Tabletop exercises
    • Simulated incidents
    • Post-mortem reviews
    • Procedure updates

9. Contact Information

Incident Response Team

  • Incident Commander: [CTO Email]
  • Security Lead: [Security Team Email]
  • Technical Lead: [DevOps Email]
  • Communications Lead: [Product Manager Email]

Emergency Contacts

10. Compliance Requirements

GDPR

  • Breach Notification: Within 72 hours to supervisory authority
  • User Notification: Without undue delay if high risk
  • Documentation: Maintain records of all breaches

DORA

  • Incident Reporting: Per EU regulatory requirements
  • Business Continuity: Maintain operational resilience
  • Third-Party Risk: Assess and manage third-party incidents

11. Post-Incident Checklist

  • Root cause identified and documented
  • All vulnerabilities patched
  • Systems restored and verified
  • Affected users notified (if required)
  • Regulatory authorities notified (if required)
  • Post-mortem conducted
  • Lessons learned documented
  • Procedures updated
  • Team trained on improvements
  • Incident log completed
  • Security controls enhanced
  • Monitoring improved

12. Continuous Improvement

Review Schedule

  • Quarterly: Review incident response procedures
  • After Each Incident: Update procedures based on lessons learned
  • Annually: Comprehensive review and update

Metrics

  • Mean Time to Detection (MTTD): Target < 1 hour
  • Mean Time to Response (MTTR): Target < 15 minutes for P0
  • Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR): Target < 4 hours for P0
  • Incident Frequency: Track and trend

Document Owner: Security Team
Review Date: Quarterly
Next Review: [Date]