Incident Response Playbook - Federal Government Cybersecurity

Technical leaders in government face fragmented response processes that waste time and increase risk. These playbooks cut through that noise by laying out a clear, repeatable workflow for every phase of an incident, from initial detection to final remediation. They force teams to ask the right questions early, so senior leaders can make informed choices without being blindsided by surprise findings.

The collection includes separate guides for incident handling, vulnerability assessment, and coordinated disclosure. Each guide details roles, communication channels, evidence gathering steps, and escalation thresholds. Real-world examples illustrate how a breach in a legacy system should be isolated, how a critical CVE is triaged, and how inter-agency coordination is documented for compliance audits.

For engineering managers, the playbooks translate policy into day-to-day actions, reducing decision paralysis and aligning cross-functional teams. By following the prescribed decision points, teams can prioritize remediation work, avoid duplicate effort, and keep stakeholders informed, which directly improves team performance and reduces project delays.

Authored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the material aligns with NIST SP 800-61 and other federal standards, making it a trusted reference for any organization that needs to formalize its cyber incident and vulnerability response posture.