Incident Readiness
Response planning, playbooks, and exercises before anything happens — the cheapest stage to get right.
Response & Recovery · Flagship Service
Incident Response & Recovery
When an event is real, speed and evidence decide the outcome. Ironhawk supports organizations through activation, stabilization, investigation, and recovery — and is explicit at every stage about what we perform and what we coordinate.
Engagement Methodology
Six Stages, Run in Parallel Where It Counts
Investigation and recovery are sequenced so urgency never erases the record — evidence preservation and impact assessment run alongside stabilization, not after it.
PHASE 01
Activate & Scope
Initial call, situation read, and agreement on scope, roles, and coordination with counsel and insurers.
TYPICAL DELIVERABLES: engagement scope · roles and communication plan
PHASE 02
Stabilize
Containment support, monitoring of the affected environment, and review of likely re-entry vectors.
TYPICAL DELIVERABLES: containment actions log · monitoring posture
PHASE 03
Preserve & Investigate
Evidence preserved using documented, forensically sound procedures; timeline and root cause reconstructed.
TYPICAL DELIVERABLES: evidence inventory · investigation findings
PHASE 04
Assess Impact
Business and technical impact quantified: systems, data, obligations, and operational consequences.
TYPICAL DELIVERABLES: impact assessment · data exposure review
PHASE 05
Recover
Restoration sequenced by business priority onto infrastructure reviewed against defined integrity criteria.
TYPICAL DELIVERABLES: recovery sequence plan · validation records
PHASE 06
Harden & Report
Identified weaknesses addressed, residual risk documented, and reporting prepared for boards, insurers, and counsel.
TYPICAL DELIVERABLES: hardening roadmap · executive reportWhat You Receive
Deliverables
Every engagement produces documented, reviewable work product — findings you can act on and hand to the people who need them, from engineers to the board.
A record that holds up
Documented procedures and preserved evidence, prepared with insurer and counsel needs in view.
Recovery you can defend
Restoration decisions tied to defined criteria and documented validation, not urgency alone.
Clarity on roles
What Ironhawk performs, what your team owns, and what is coordinated with counsel or specialized providers — agreed at activation.
Typical Deliverables
- Engagement scope and communication plan
- Evidence inventory and investigation findings
- Incident timeline and root-cause analysis
- Business and technical impact assessment
- Recovery sequencing plan with validation records
- Residual-risk documentation and hardening roadmap
- Executive and board reporting
Engagement Options
Scoped to Where You Are
Each option is scoped and agreed before work begins — including access requirements, client responsibilities, and the deliverables the engagement produces.
Active-Event Support
Stabilization, investigation, and coordination support during an unfolding incident, subject to availability confirmed at contact.
Investigation & Impact
Forensics and impact assessment — standalone or alongside an internal or third-party response.
Recovery & Resilience
Sequenced rebuild support and hardening programs after containment, including post-ransomware recovery.
Questions Buyers Ask
FAQs
When should we call — and is it too early?
It is almost never too early. A short scoping call during the 'is this real?' phase costs little and shapes the first decisions, which are the ones that preserve or destroy evidence. If it turns out to be nothing, the call ends there. For active events, call (844) 234-6464 — the website form is not monitored as an emergency channel.
Do you work with our counsel and cyber insurer?
Yes — coordination with counsel and insurers is agreed at activation, including reporting lines and whether work is directed by counsel. Evidence handling and documentation are shaped from the start with their requirements in view.
Do you replace our IT team during recovery, or work through them?
Through them, in almost every case. Your team knows the environment; Ironhawk brings method, surge capacity, and decision support. Role boundaries — who executes, who validates, who decides — are part of the engagement scope, and client responsibilities are explicit.
How is evidence handled?
Using documented, forensically sound procedures: preservation before analysis, chain-of-custody records, and findings that distinguish what is evidenced from what is inferred. How evidence is ultimately used is a matter for counsel; Ironhawk's role is to ensure the record is there to use.
Do you handle ransom negotiation?
No — ransom negotiation and payment facilitation are not Ironhawk services. Where that question arises, it belongs with specialized counsel and firms, and Ironhawk coordinates the technical workstream alongside them: what was taken, what restoring without payment would require, and what either path means operationally.
What does 'recovered' mean — when does the engagement end?
Against criteria, not feelings: the recovery plan defines what must be restored, validated, and documented, and the engagement closes with residual risk stated explicitly. What remains open is written down — not implied to be finished.
See the shape of the work product: a sample incident impact assessment.
View Sample AssessmentThe Best Time to Meet Us Is Before the Incident
Readiness work — plans, playbooks, exercises — is where response outcomes are actually decided. For active events, call (844) 234-6464.