Cyber Incident Response Planning for SMEs: Preparation for a Cyber Attack with PICERL

These are the show notes for this podcast, have a listen to get the full details on developing your cyber incident response plan.

In today’s highly networked world, cyber attacks are impacting more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While large corporations often have dedicated security teams and resources, SMEs typically operate with smaller budgets and leaner IT departments – often making them easy targets for cybercriminals. Creating an effective cyber incident response plan is therefore important for safeguarding your operations, reputation, and bottom line.

Why Incident Response Matters for SMEs

Cyber attacks can be very costly financially and emotional, for SMEs.  Preparing for a cyber incident like ransomware, phishing, or data theft can make that incident much less stressful and costly.  . Without a solid response strategy, a single breach can mean severe financial losses, legal consequences, or even total operational shutdown. By planning ahead, you’ll be able to minimize damage, contain threats, and get up and running faster when an incident occurs.

We look at the PICERL Method for Cyber Incident response.

This is a structured approach that ensures that you address every stage of an attack. The  PICERL method includes the following steps:

• —
• Prepare;
• Identify;
• Contain;
• Eradicate;
• Recover; and
• Lessons Learnt

The Preparation Phase

This is the most important phase because it sets the conditions for each of the subsequent phases.  You can’t recover if you haven’t planned and tested your back up and restore processes.

Risk Assessment: Determine the types of data you handle, your regulatory obligations, and potential vulnerabilities.
Asset Inventory: Map out all IT assets (hardware, software, cloud services).
Policies & Procedures: Keep documentation concise and relevant, so your team actually reads and understands it.  Ensure that people who are assigned roles in the event know what those roles are.
Employee Training: Teach staff how to spot phishing emails and other scams, turning them into a human firewall.
Incident War Games: Simulate possible breaches to identify weaknesses in your plan.
Identify

Some other components that you will want to look at in the preparation phase include:

Cyber Insurance: Many SMEs benefit from having a policy that covers certain response and recovery costs.
Legal Obligations: Be aware of regulations that require you to notify customers, employees, or authorities if a data breach occurs.
Communication Strategy: Plan how to inform your team, stakeholders, and the public. Clear, calm messaging helps maintain trust and minimizes panic.
Conclusion
A robust, well-practiced cyber incident response plan can be the difference between a minor hiccup and a catastrophic event for an SME. By assessing risks, training employees, and following the PICERL methodology, your business will be better equipped to contain threats and bounce back quickly. In an era of growing cyberattacks, proactive planning isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity for protecting your operations, reputation, and future growth.

Here is the ACSC Cyber Response Plan template.  It is quite long and references resources that most SMEs won’t have access to, but it is a good start.

Check out the rest of our Cyber Security podcasts.