Cyber Incident Response Workshops
Cyber incidents are inevitable. If a recent incident, or a near miss, is what brought you here, a tested Incident Response Plan is exactly what turns a chaotic few hours into a coordinated, confident one. CloudGuard’s IR Planning service gives you clear roles, rehearsed processes, and a plan your team has already run through, so readiness, responsiveness, and resilience all improve from one engagement, not three separate purchases.
100s of businesses continue to improve their cybersecurity with CloudGuard
Where Most Incident Response Plans Actually Fall Apart
Confidence in a plan and a plan that actually holds up under pressure are two different things. That gap shows up in more ways than one, some you’d catch yourself, others only once regulators or insurers start asking questions.
When response depends on whoever remembers the process, or happens to be reachable at 2am, that’s a hope, not a plan. Most incident response fails from unclear ownership, not lack of effort.
Cyber insurance renewals increasingly hinge on evidence of a tested response plan, and UK cyber regulation (NIS Regulations today, a broader Cyber Security and Resilience Bill on the way) is only tightening. A policy document nobody’s opened in a year won’t satisfy either one.
68% of SMBs that had a breach took over 7 days to identify it. That’s the Security Confidence Gap: feeling ready and being ready are different things, and the gap shows up at the worst possible time. Better to find it in a rehearsal.
What businesses tell us time and time again
If something went wrong, we’re not sure what we’d do or who’s responsible. It would likely be chaotic.
Security isn’t our focus, so it’s hard to know what good looks like or where we’re vulnerable.
No one’s tested the plan or practiced a real response. We’d be figuring it out under pressure, which feels risky.
Six Steps From Workshop to Working Plan
Every engagement follows the same structured path, from the first conversation to a finished plan in your hands.
Phase 1: Engagement Initiation
We start by confirming scope, objectives, and who needs to be involved, so the engagement is focused from day one instead of finding its shape as it goes. You'll know what's being delivered and by when before any work begins.
Phase 2: Current State Assessment
We review whatever you already have: existing plans, processes, past incidents, to find the real gaps rather than assumed ones. This becomes the honest baseline everything else in the engagement builds from.
Phase 3: Workshops & Design
Facilitated sessions with your team define roles, responsibilities, response processes, and escalation pathways, built around how your business actually operates rather than a generic framework.
Phase 4: Plan Development
Everything agreed in the workshops (processes, communication models, governance) gets built into a tailored Incident Response Plan. It's shaped specifically around how your organisation makes decisions under pressure, not boilerplate with your name on the cover.
Phase 5: Validation & Alignment
We validate the draft plan with your key stakeholders to confirm it's practical, understood, and aligned to business and regulatory requirements. The goal is a plan people actually use, not one that simply gets signed off.
Phase 6: Report & Handover
You receive the completed Incident Response Plan, ready for operational use, with a clear foundation for ongoing testing: tabletop exercises and bi-annual reviews that keep it current as your business changes.
Meet Your Incident Response Experts
Conor Mallon
Conor is Chief Operating Officer at CloudGuard, with a decade of frontline cybersecurity experience spanning SOC leadership, incident response and operational strategy. From analyst to XDR site lead, he has built and led high-performing teams, streamlined operations and driven resilience.
Matt Lovell
Matt is the Co-Founder and CEO of CloudGuard, with 30+ years of cybersecurity leadership. A recognised expert in incident response, he has guided organisations through major breaches, crafted bespoke response plans and led strategic tabletop exercises. Matt ensures rapid recovery, clear communication and minimal impact.
Built Around Your Business and What Happens Next
CloudGuard’s Incident Response Plans are shaped by a team that runs live detection and response day to day, not consultants who only ever see it on paper. A workshop and a document are easy enough to produce. What’s harder is who’s actually behind it, how independent it stays from any other contract, how long it keeps working, and what it costs to find out.
For Teams Who'd Rather Be Ready Than Lucky
Cyber incident response workshops are ideal for IT Managers who know the plan has never been tested (if there is one), the Operations Director who owns business continuity when something goes wrong or the Finance Director stuck answering the insurer’s questions.
You’ve either had an incident or come close enough to know you got lucky. Either way, you now know the difference between “we’d probably be fine” and actually being ready, and you’re not willing to rely on luck twice.
You don’t have a dedicated incident response lead, and you can’t justify hiring one yet. CloudGuard’s IR Planning gives you the structure and expertise of a mature security function without adding headcount.
Maybe it’s a cyber insurance renewal, an ICO reporting obligation, or a board member asking “are we ready?” The honest answer is often “sort of.” This engagement turns that into a clear, evidenced yes.
Trusted by Customers. Backed by Certifications. Proven in the Real World.
CloudGuard is embedded in the cybersecurity industry – recognised, accredited, and trusted to protect real organisations every day.
What our customers have said
We came away with a response plan that actually works for us. Not a generic template, but something tailored to our business, our people and our risks.
We had a plan, but this workshop exposed the blind spots we didn’t know we had. The tabletop exercise was eye-opening and helped us tighten our response times across the board.
We booked the simulation and review together, and it was absolutely worth it. The workshop helped us connect the dots between policy and real-world action.
Having a one-on-one workshop meant we could focus entirely on our systems and challenges. It felt more like working with a partner than attending a training.
The session was incredibly practical. The expert advice from Conor and real scenarios that made us feel far more confident as a team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we really need a workshop if we already have a plan?
Yes. Many organisations have a plan on paper that’s either outdated or untested. Our incident response workshops are designed to review and strengthen what you already have. We will help your business in identifying blind spots, aligning responsibilities and ensuring your team knows exactly how to act when it counts.
Can’t we just download a template and build the plan ourselves?
Templates are a starting point, not a solution. Our incident response workshops are tailored to your systems, risks and team. This is not a one-size-fits-all checklist. We help you turn generic documents into a plan that actually works for your business
What if we don’t have any cybersecurity expertise internally?
That’s exactly who our incident response workshops are built for. You don’t need to be a security expert. Our team brings the experience and guides you through every step in plain English, helping you make confident, informed decisions.
We’re a small team. Is this really worth the investment?
Absolutely. SMEs are often the most vulnerable to cyber threats and the least resourced to recover. These incident response workshops are designed to be focused, practical and high-impact. Their core objective is to give you a solid plan and peace of mind in just one day.
Can more than one person attend the workshop?
Yes. Our incident response workshops are delivered one-on-one with your business, but there’s no limit on how many internal stakeholders can join. We encourage cross-team involvement so everyone knows their role when it matters.
Where do the workshops take place?
Our incident response workshops are delivered in person at your office or a location that works best for you. This makes it easier to focus, collaborate and simulate realistic scenarios in your own environment.
Does an Incident Response Plan help with cyber insurance or compliance requirements like ISO 27001?
Yes. Cyber insurers, auditors, and frameworks like ISO 27001 and the UK’s NIS Regulations increasingly expect evidence of a tested, documented incident response capability, not a policy statement alone. CloudGuard’s Incident Response Plan is built to align with your regulatory and business obligations from the start, giving you documentation that supports insurance renewals, audit evidence, and board reporting, rather than a generic document you have to translate into what assessors actually expect.
How much does incident response planning cost?
CloudGuard’s Incident Response Planning engagement is fixed at £4,320. The optional Tabletop Exercise, which tests your finished plan under realistic scenarios, is priced separately at a fixed £3,360. Either way, you’ll know the full cost upfront, with nothing hidden or added later.
Related services
Our cybersecurity experts will assess your organisation’s current security posture, with remediation actions to close any gaps.
Partner with CloudGuard’s CISO Advisory Services to prepare, protect, and strengthen your organisation’s cybersecurity defences.
Simulated scenario workshops to test the effectiveness of your current Incident Response Plans and identify areas for improvement.
Fixed Pricing, No Surprises
We’ve designed our hands-on cybersecurity workshops to meet teams exactly where they are. Whether you’re starting from scratch, refining an existing plan or pressure-testing under real conditions, our IR experts help make sure you’re ready for whatever comes your way.
Create: Work one-on-one with our IR experts to map out a clear, usable plan your team can follow under pressure.
Strengthen: Already got a plan? We’ll review it together, identify gaps and make sure it’s fit for the real world.
Run a live tabletop simulation (TTX)
Walk through a realistic cyber attack with your team to see how you respond and where to improve.
Ready to strengthen your cyber response?
Book your workshop and give your team the tools to act fast, stay calm and bounce back stronger. No jargon, no fluff. Just expert support, tailored to your business.