Clear and honest communication protects trust during an incident. Use prepared templates and one spokesperson. Assume email may be compromised.
Why it matters
For Incident Response, communication is rarely a purely technical question. It touches ownership, budget and how quickly decisions can be made when something goes wrong. Teams that agree on these points in advance spend less time debating them under pressure.
What to check
- Use an out-of-band channel for the response team
- Give staff clear instructions on what to do
- Brief the board early and regularly
Where to start
Say what you know, what you do not know and when you will update. Write down what you decide, who owns it and when it will be reviewed. That record is often the evidence a reviewer asks for later.