Incident Response Plan versus Ransomware Response Strategy

Research published in Digital Threats: Research and Practice identifies a gap in how organizations prepare for cyberattacks. "It is easy to create a general threat IR plan and assume coverage against ransomware incidents. The unfortunate reality then unfolds in the form of general confusion and ineffectiveness when faced with the unique challenges posed by modern ransomware threats," the article notes.

As the researchers note, "Organizations discover too late that the IR plan in place requires substantial adaption before it can be effective in the event of an ongoing ransomware crisis."

What an Incident Response Plan covers

An Incident Response Plan is a foundational document that establishes how an organization manages security events across multiple threat categories. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) defines it as "a written document, formally approved by the senior leadership team, that helps your organization before, during, and after a confirmed or suspected security incident."

Standard IRPs address data breaches, malware infections, denial of service attacks, and ransomware under a unified framework. The typical phases, as outlined in guidance from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), include preparation, detection and analysis, containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident review. General incident response guidance emphasizes universal best practices:

• Training staff to recognize threats
• Establishing communication protocols
• Assigning roles like Incident Manager and Technical Manager
• Conducting tabletop exercises

CISA recommends organizations "review this plan quarterly" and "conduct an attack simulation exercise" to validate their response capabilities.

These foundational elements will always be required, but ransomware introduces complications that generic procedures don't anticipate.

Learn more: What is an incident response plan?

Why ransomware demands specific response strategies

The Michigan State University researchers in the Digital Threats study identify several characteristics that differentiate ransomware from other cybersecurity incidents.

• Ransom demands: The requirement to evaluate cryptocurrency payment creates decision points that don't exist in other incident types. Organizations must consider payment infrastructure, negotiation approaches, and regulatory prohibitions before an attack occurs.
• Multi-tiered extortion: Modern ransomware operators encrypt data and exfiltrate copies, enabling sequential ransom demands. A review in Global Journal of Engineering and Technology Advances confirms that "double and triple extortion techniques, where attackers not only encrypt data but also threaten to release sensitive information" have become standard tactics.
• Deliberate disruption: Unlike spyware or botnets that prefer to remain hidden, ransomware explicitly seeks to debilitate operations. The attack's success depends on creating urgency through service interruption.
• Media operations: Ransomware groups publicly name victims on underground forums, requiring organizations to prepare for external communications crises that other incident types don't generate.

NIST specifies in their document about ransomware risk management that ransomware "differs from other cybersecurity events" in ways that necessitate specific response strategies. CISA advises ransomware response planning rather than depending on general IR procedures.

Read more: What is ransomware?

Key differences in practice

A general Incident Response Plan establishes broad response capabilities. A ransomware response strategy builds on that foundation with threat-specific preparations.

Scope

• General IRP: Covers all incident types under a unified framework, including data breaches, malware infections, denial of service attacks, and ransomware.
• Ransomware Response Strategy: Focuses exclusively on ransomware-specific scenarios with preparations tailored to how these attacks uniquely unfold.

Asset classification

• General IRP: General inventory of systems and data.
• Ransomware Response Strategy: Tiered criticality ratings that directly affect escalation decisions. As the Michigan State University researchers explain, "The true severity of the incident is only determined after obtaining the criticality rating and the overall impact."

Payment decisions

• General IRP: Not addressed.
• Ransomware Response Strategy: Pre-incident executive discussions about negotiation posture, awareness of regulatory prohibitions, and identification of cryptocurrency exchange platforms.

Backup validation

• General IRP: Standard recovery procedures confirming backups exist and can be restored.
• Ransomware Response Strategy: Validates that backups are maintained offline and offsite where attackers cannot encrypt them, with restoration rehearsed under ransomware-specific conditions.

External contacts

• General IRP: Law enforcement and legal counsel.
• Ransomware Response Strategy: Adds cryptocurrency exchanges, ransomware negotiation specialists, and threat intelligence providers who track specific ransomware families.

Communications

• General IRP: Internal notification and regulatory disclosure requirements.
• Ransomware Response Strategy: Adds media response preparation for public shaming campaigns on underground forums and leak sites.

Cryptographic analysis

• General IRP: Not applicable.
• Ransomware Response Strategy: Assessment of encryption implementation and key recovery possibilities to determine whether data recovery is possible without payment.

As the Global Journal of Engineering and Technology Advances review concludes, "Developing and testing ransomware-specific incident response plans is a good strategy that enables organizations to develop comprehensive incident response plans, tailored to ransomware attacks because this ensures preparedness and identifies areas for improvement."

Go deeper: Developing a HIPAA compliant incident response plan for data breaches

FAQs

What is Ransomware as a Service (RaaS)?

Ransomware as a Service is a business model where ransomware developers provide pre-packaged attack tools to affiliates in exchange for a share of ransom payments. RaaS platforms have lowered the technical barrier for cybercriminals, enabling attackers without advanced expertise to execute sophisticated ransomware campaigns.

What is a tabletop exercise?

A tabletop exercise is a discussion-based simulation where team members walk through their roles during a hypothetical incident scenario. A facilitator presents evolving situation updates while participants explain how they would respond, helping organizations identify gaps in their plans before a real incident occurs.

What is the MITRE ATT&CK framework?

MITRE ATT&CK is a knowledge base of adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) based on real-world observations. Security teams use it to understand attacker behavior, map detected activities to known threat patterns, and inform both detection capabilities and response strategies.

Related: How TTPs help organizations identify and combat cyber threats