Make incident response part of every NIST CSF 2.0 function

Incident response does not begin when an alert fires. Governance, asset knowledge, safeguards, detection design, recovery preparation, and continuous improvement determine whether a team can make sound decisions when facts are incomplete and time matters.

The current NIST model

Source fact: NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 3 supersedes Revision 2 and expresses incident-response recommendations as a NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 Community Profile. NIST places incident response across all six CSF functions: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.

Source fact: NIST explains that integrating incident response into cybersecurity risk management can help organizations prepare, reduce the number and impact of incidents, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of detection, response, and recovery. The publication supplies recommended outcomes and considerations; it is not a product-specific forensic runbook.

Translate six functions into operating responsibilities

DSE recommendation: build the response capability as a chain of evidence-backed responsibilities rather than a document owned only by IT.

Govern: define authority, risk decisions, policy, roles, external obligations, communications approval, evidence handling, and provider responsibilities.

Identify: know essential services, assets, data, identities, suppliers, dependencies, and the consequences of loss or manipulation.

Protect: operate safeguards that reduce likelihood or impact and preserve trusted administrative and recovery paths.

Detect: collect useful telemetry, establish analysis and escalation criteria, and validate that alerts reach accountable responders.

Respond: analyze, contain, eradicate, coordinate, communicate, preserve evidence, and make documented risk decisions.

Recover: restore prioritized services, validate integrity and function, communicate status, and manage reconstitution.

Exercise the handoffs

DSE recommendation: choose one credible scenario and walk it from detection through recovery. Record who can declare an incident, isolate a system, engage counsel or insurance, notify providers, approve public communication, accept temporary risk, and authorize restoration. Test alternate contacts and out-of-band communications instead of assuming the normal identity, email, phone, or ticketing service will remain available.

After the exercise, assign each finding to a CSF function, an owner, a due date, and evidence of completion. Improvements may belong in governance, inventory, architecture, contracts, logging, training, recovery, or communications—not only in the response plan.

Applicability and limits

SP 800-61 Rev. 3 is risk-management guidance, not legal advice, a breach-notification schedule, or a substitute for sector-specific procedures. Forensic preservation, insurer notice, law-enforcement coordination, employment issues, privacy, and regulatory reporting require qualified review under the actual facts. Use NIST’s current online incident-response resources alongside the publication.

Official reference

NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 3 — current incident-response recommendations aligned to CSF 2.0.