What is CIRT: Meaning and Importance

What Is CIRT?

The acronym CIRT stands for Cyber Incident Response Team – sometimes also called Computer Incident Response Team. A Cyber Incident Response Team  is a specialized group of cybersecurity experts responsible for responding to and managing major security incidents such as data breaches, phishing, malware, etc.

The CIRT is essential for restoring your organization’s infrastructure and maintaining business continuity. These teams are equipped with advanced threat intelligence and incident response (IR) capabilities to provide a comprehensive understanding of the incident’s nature and scope.

Their primary mission is to monitor and contain the threat, collect and analyze critical evidence, and build targeted remediation and recovery strategies.

On average, CIRTs include security analysts and IT professionals who investigate and remediate the technical issues, alongside experts who coordinate messaging to employees, customers, or the public during and after the incident.

Some organizations maintain a permanent, in-house CIRT that is always ready. Others might assemble an ad-hoc CIRT from various departments when a major incident strikes, or they may rely on a third-party incident response provider to act as their CIRT.

Differences Between CIRT, CERT, and CIRC

You might have seen other acronyms like CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) and CIRC (Computer Incident Response Center) used in similar contexts. These terms are often used interchangeably to describe cyber incident response teams working towards the same goal of responding to and investigating computer security incidents and mitigating their consequences.

CERT is a trademark of Carnegie Mellon University. Any organization that wants to use this name needs permission, and others must utilize different acronyms like CIRT (Team) or CIRC (Center or Capability) for their incident response groups.

Some professionals draw subtle distinctions between the terms CERT, CIRT, and CIRC:

Also, CERTs, CIRTs, and CIRCs may use different methods, incident response frameworks, sources of information, etc. However, CERT and CIRT often have more in common than two different CIRTs, so there are no clear criteria for distinguishing these entities.

Differences Between CIRT and SOC

Another related term in cybersecurity incident response is SOC, or security operations center. The main difference is that a SOC proactively monitors and detects threats across the organization, while a CIRT specializes in responding to confirmed security incidents.

SOC has a broader scope of responsibilities within an organization. Apart from incident response, they include threat monitoring, detection of malicious activities or suspicious trends in an organization’s infrastructure, and cyber incident prevention.

A CIRT, on the other hand, is more focused on responding to incidents once they are detected. In many organizations, the SOC is the first line of defense that might detect an intrusion or malicious behavior, and the CIRT is the cavalry that’s called in when a serious threat is confirmed.

The SOC’s scope of work is ongoing and continuous, while the CIRT’s focus is specific and event-driven (dealing with the emergency at hand). SOCs and CIRTs often work hand-in-hand. A SOC will escalate an incident to the CIRT when it observes a serious threat, like signs of a ransomware infection in progress.

Due to limited staff, the same people might wear both SOC and CIRT hats in smaller companies. They monitor, and if an incident occurs, they switch into response mode. In larger enterprises, these functions may be separate teams that coordinate closely.

Here’s a summary of the differences between CIRT and SOC:

Roles and Responsibilities of CIRT

The leading roles and responsibilities for CIRT are managing information security events and responding to and remediating a cyber incident in case an organization encounters it.

Key roles in CIRTs include:

• The Incident Response Manager oversees and coordinates the entire response process and is the primary liaison between management and external stakeholders.
• Lead Investigator/Security Analyst who investigates and handles technical remediation
• Communications Lead responsible for managing internal and external messaging.
• Depending on the incident’s complexity, specialists such as digital forensics experts, malware analysts, or legal advisors may also be involved

Below is a breakdown of a CIRT’s responsibilities according to the incident response stages.

Key Components of an Effective CIRT

An effective cyber incident response team is built on strong foundational components that ensure the team is structurally prepared to handle incidents. These foundational elements include the team’s roles and skill sets, structure and leadership, and funding.

Below, we explore each key component and highlight differences between basic and advanced CIRT setups.

Roles and Expertise

At a minimum, a CIRT should consist of core IT staff who take on multiple roles. This basic approach ensures someone is responsible for incident handling but can leave gaps in specialized areas.

On the other hand, an advanced CIRT is more structured and cross-functional. The team can include dedicated roles such as an incident team leader, a communications liaison, a lead technical investigator, security analysts, threat intelligence researchers, and designated legal and human resources representatives.

A mature CIRT’s diversity of skills allows it to tackle a wider variety of incidents effectively, whereas limited-skill teams can be easily overwhelmed by unfamiliar attack scenarios.

Leadership Alignment

Leadership support is a structural cornerstone that boosts a CIRT’s effectiveness from basic to maximum on the cyber readiness ladder. At the basic maturity level, incident response may be managed by mid-level IT managers without direct executive involvement except during significant crisis.

If leadership is not fully engaged, this can lead to misaligned priorities or delays in decision-making.

An optimal CIRT, however, has clear executive sponsorship and alignment with an organization’s leadership structure. Many mature teams designate a C-suite executive (such as the Chief Information Security Officer or a CIO) as the CIRT lead or sponsor. The sponsor’s role is to ensure incident response activities align with business objectives while advocating for the team’s needs.

Funding and Resource Allocation

Funding for a basic CIRT is often reactive – increased only after a significant incident or compliance mandate. We’ve observed that organizations increase security spending following cyber incidents, where many teams remain under-resourced until a breach forces investment.

In a low-maturity scenario, the CIRT lacks advanced tools (like forensic software or a threat intelligence platform) and has limited staff training budgets. In contrast, an advanced CIRT is supported by sustained funding and resources as part of the organization’s strategic investment in cybersecurity.

With stable funding, an advanced CIRT can maintain capabilities like 24/7 monitoring through staffing or contracting a managed security service for off-hours coverage. They also invest in readiness activities (e.g., threat hunting tools, incident management platforms, and periodic incident simulation exercises) that a basic team might forego due to cost.

Check out Group-IB’s Incident Response Readiness Assessment to estimate your organization’s security maturity level and CIRT’s readiness.

Organizational Structure

In a basic setup, incident response duties are assigned to existing IT staff. Team members usually have other primary responsibilities, and the incident response role is secondary, which can cause slow reactions. Also, a CIRT buried within the IT department might struggle to enforce security changes without a mandate beyond IT operations.

Many enterprises position a CIRT under the umbrella of their information security program, led by the CISO, highlighting incident response as a specialized function, not just an ad-hoc task. You might also find a hybrid approach in large multinational companies: a central CIRT that coordinates with incident response teams in business units or regional offices.

As organizations grow, many CIRTs move from a reactive, internal IT team model to a formalized unit that works alongside a SOC for continuous collaboration between incident detection and response functions.

Common Cyber Threats Managed by CIRT

Below are some of the most common security scenarios that would trigger a CIRT into action.

1. Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware is one of the most devastating threats organizations face. In a ransomware attack, malware spreads through the network, encrypting files and demanding a ransom payment for the decryption key. The impact can be massive – business operations halted, sensitive data compromised or stolen, with substantial legal and recovery costs.

When ransomware strikes, a CIRT is also responsible for coordinating the tough decision about whether to pay the ransom (generally discouraged by law enforcement). Ransomware incidents are all-hands-on-deck crises that require a competent cyber incident response team.

An analysis of the RansomHub ransomware operation provides insight into how modern RaaS groups operate and the aftermath of their attacks.

2. Phishing and Business Email Compromise (BEC)

Phishing is a tactic in which attackers use deceptive emails, fake websites, and fraudulent messages to trick users into giving up credentials or launching malware. A successful phishing attack or BEC scam can result in an employee’s account being taken over or a direct request for wire transfers and confidential information.

CIRTs spend a lot of time dealing with phishing-induced incidents since these have become increasingly common. In fact, Group-IB’s 2025 High-Tech Crime Trends reported more than 80,000 phishing websites in 2024 (a 22% increase), with logistics, travel, and internet services as the top three industries targeted.

When such incidents occur, the CIRT steps in to contain the account compromise (e.g., reset passwords, eject the intruder), investigate what the attacker did, and help the affected parties recover. Group-IB’s Business Email Protection helps organizations detect and block phishing and BEC attacks, strengthening defenses against email-based threats and preventing future compromises.

3. Malware Infections and Viruses

Recent malware attacks have been focused on exfiltrating massive amounts of data. As per our recent Hi-Tech Crime Trends report, malicious malware like face-stealing trojan, ClickFix, etc., have emerged to exfiltrate data in mass amounts and grant

threat actors’ persistent access.

If a company’s antivirus or EDR tools detect a dangerous malware infection on an endpoint or server, the CIRT will analyze the malware, understand its capabilities, and ensure it’s eradicated from all systems. 

4. Data Leaks and Breaches

A data leak is the unauthorized disclosure of confidential information by an organization or individual. In 2024, 1,107 new instances of data being leaked into the public domain were reported worldwide. These incidents compromised over 6.4 billion user data strings (Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2025).

A data breach occurs when sensitive data (customer information, intellectual property, etc.) is accessed or stolen by an unauthorized party. This could happen through hacking (such as a vulnerability exploited in a web application) or an insider misusing their privileges.

When a data breach or leak is discovered, the CIRT’s job is to quickly contain and stop any ongoing data exfiltration and conduct a compromise assessment to determine the cause and full extent of the incident. These incidents can involve engaging digital forensics services and working closely with legal or compliance teams to minimize regulatory implications.

5. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks

In a DDoS attack, an attacker floods a company’s servers or network with excessive traffic, intending to overwhelm systems and knock services offline. While DDoS doesn’t typically involve a network intrusion or data theft, it’s still a major security incident that a CIRT may need to manage because it disrupts business operations.

The CIRT would oversee the incident response plan when an attack occurs, ensuring service is restored as quickly as possible. This involves working with your internet service provider, checking whether your organization has bot protection in place, or using fraud protection solutions to filter out malicious traffic.

6. Website and Application Attacks

Many organizations run customer-facing websites or apps, which can be targets for attacks like SQL injection, cross-site scripting, or defacement.

If an attacker defaces your website or exploits a vulnerability to steal customer data, the CIRT will respond by taking the site offline if needed, fixing the vulnerability, or restoring the original content. They will also coordinate with application developers to ensure patches are applied and code is secured as part of the remediation.

Additionally, brand impersonation attacks, where criminals create fake websites or social media profiles pretending to be your company, can harm your customers and reputation. While this might not involve a data breach, your CIRT can coordinate the response, such as working to take down the fraudulent sites and warning your customers.

Best Practices for Building a Strong CIRT

Building an internal cyber incident response team requires the right mix of people, processes, and technology. A strong CIRT can mean the difference between a threat being nipped in the bud and becoming the next big news story.

Here are our expert recommendations for establishing and maintaining a strong CIRT:

1. Define roles and responsibilities

This clarity ensures that team members understand their tasks to prevent confusion and delays during critical moments.

It includes:

• A CIRT can include people from different departments or external partners, typically cybersecurity professionals who understand incident response, digital forensics, and IT systems. For complex cases, this includes specialists like malware analysts or threat intelligence experts.
• Establish each person’s responsibility during an incident. For example, an incident manager to lead the overall response effort, a lead investigator and security analysts to handle technical forensics, a communication officer to handle status updates and press statements, etc.
• Document a contact list with multiple ways to reach each person (phone, personal email, etc.) and keep it updated.

2. Develop a formal incident response

NIST’s latest incident response recommendations for cybersecurity risk management urge organizations to use the incident response life cycle framework or model that suits them best.

For example, larger and more technology-dependent organizations will benefit more from using a framework emphasizing continuous improvement than other organizations would.

The plan should include:

• Guidelines for prioritizing incidents, estimating their severity, initiating recovery processes, maintaining or restoring operations, timelines, communication protocols, and other key actions.
• Setting up secure channels for internal communication during incidents (secure chat, phone bridge).
• Regular updates to incorporate new threats or organizational changes.

3. Implement strong monitoring and detection capabilities

Gain complete visibility over your security operations, including endpoints, servers, cloud workloads, emails, and networks. This helps security teams to proactively hunt for threat actors in your infrastructure, counteract attacks in real time, and respond as quickly as possible when a security incident occurs.

What to do:

• Invest in early detection and threat hunting capabilities, including SIEM, EDR, and network traffic analysis solutions.
• Use forensic software for detailed investigations of compromised systems.
• Incorporate threat intelligence into your CIRT’s preemptive and reactive strategies for insights into adversaries and how the latest threats affect your business or industry.

Related: How to avoid integration mistakes between critical components of your cybersecurity ecosystem that can undermine a CIRT’s defenses.

4. Conduct readiness assessment and regular training

Identify problems and deficiencies in your people, processes, or technology that should be corrected through self-assessments, third-party assessments, or independent audits.

What to do:

• Perform a comprehensive Incident Response Readiness Assessment to estimate how ready your organization is to respond to incidents. This can include Incident Responder instructor-led training courses.
• Carry out incident response drills or tabletop exercises, including red teaming exercises, in which an ethical hacking team tests your defenses and response.
• Foster a culture of continuous learning with regular workshops, seminars, and certifications for CIRT members to enhance skills and knowledge.

A strong CIRT goes hand-in-hand with a comprehensive digital risk protection strategy that continuously detects and removes threats to your brand and digital footprint.

5. Collaborate with external partners for support 

Voluntary incident information sharing is often mutually beneficial because the same threats and attacks simultaneously affect multiple organizations. An example is sharing information about observed TTPs with a sector-specific Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC).

What to do:

• Perform notifications in compliance with the current incident notification-related laws and regulations that pertain to your organization’s sectors, geographic locations, and customer locations.
• Engage with incident response providers, law enforcement agencies, and cyber intelligence networks during critical incidents. Sharing defensive tactics can enhance overall situational awareness and increase the resiliency of all.
• These agencies offer intelligence on sophisticated threat actors and ransomware groups that can aid your response. If your CIRT finds indicators of a nation-state actor, having access to threat intelligence networks provides more context.

Learn how advanced solutions, like Group-IB AI assistant, can support your CIRT and SOC teams to speed up threat intelligence and decision-making.

Benefits of Outsourcing CIRT Services

The benefits of outsourcing CIRT services include access to experienced cybersecurity experts, faster threat containment, and reduced costs. An effective CIRT requires specific expertise and hands-on experience, which can be costly and resource-intensive. It’s why many companies choose to outsource or supplement their IR needs with external specialists.

Mishandled incident response can exacerbate the consequences of cyber attacks, which in turn may lead to persistent attacks causing ever-growing damage and infrastructure downtime. On the other hand, incident response performed by a highly skilled outsourced CIRT will not only mitigate the attack consequences but also improve your overall security posture.

Below, we explore the key benefits your organization gains by engaging a third-party incident response provider:

1. Enhance readiness and minimize downtime

IR specialists are familiar with the latest tactics and techniques attackers apply from years of experience in stopping incidents of various complexity on a daily basis. Outsourcing CIRT services help accelerate response times from days to hours through pre-negotiated SLAs.

Approach: 

• The average organization still takes on the order of 277 days to identify and contain a breach, whereas a dedicated retainer service can mobilize experts within hours to avoid delays when every second counts.
• 90% of companies are dissatisfied with the speed of response to incidents. Outsourcing CIRT services ensures around-the-clock readiness for faster containment and mitigation, minimizing damage and downtime when cyber attacks occur.

Case study:

In January 2024, a Malaysian private healthcare provider fell victim to a ransomware attack by a threat actor known as “yesdaddy”. Group-IB’s digital forensics and incident response experts swiftly traced the threat actor (whom we had previously tracked) and negotiated to recover encrypted data. 2,872 malicious threats were blocked using solutions like Extended Detection & Response (XDR) and Network Detection & Response (NDR). The hospital successfully restored critical systems and prevented further operational and financial losses.

2. Lower operational expenses and reduce breach impact

Outsourcing CIRT services offers a cost-effective alternative, providing access to specialized expertise and resources without the overhead of maintaining a dedicated internal team.

IBM’s 2023 data shows that organizations with a well-prepared incident response team saved an average of $2.66 million per breach compared to those without. Breaches that were contained within 200 days cost about $1.2 million less than those that took longer to resolve.

Approach:

• Companies that outsource CIRT services avoid the expense of maintaining full-time in-house responders, paying instead for expertise on demand.
• Outsourced services can be scaled according to the organization’s needs, allowing for flexibility in response to varying threat levels without the fixed costs associated with an in-house team.

Case study:

Explore how Group-IB’s IR team helped Egypt’s e-payment provider, Fawry, confine a LockBit ransomware attack to a testing environment without compromising any production segment, payment information, or customer data.

3. Improve overall security posture and risk management

An outsourced CIRT brings specialized skills, experience, and tools that many organizations lack internally. They research emerging threats to provide the latest industry-specific threat intelligence and reports.

Approach:

• Skilled incident response teams possess advanced CTI into past, present, and emerging attacks targeting a client’s industry, turning insights into actionable strategies for your security teams.
• After resolving an incident, an external CIRT will deliver detailed forensic reports, root-cause analysis, and recommendations to prevent future incidents and strengthen your organization’s security posture.

Case study:

When traditional security tools failed to detect and dismantle threats, Thailand-based cybersecurity firm Sinority partnered with Group-IB to minimize damage and restore public trust. The firm integrated Group-IB’s Attack Surface Management and Digital Risk Protection solutions, which provided full visibility into external IT assets, real-time alerts about impersonation attempts, and automated the takedown of malicious domains. 

How Group-IB Incident Response Protects Organizations

Ransomware and APT tactics will continue to evolve, pushing organizations to adopt increasingly proactive, intelligence-driven approaches. To counter these challenges, a capable cyber incident response team is essential for any company that values its data and uptime.

The importance of CIRT lies in its ability to protect business continuity, finances, and reputation during a major incident. They conduct in-depth forensic and malware analysis to provide network hardening recommendations and prevent similar attacks.

However, not every organization can build a strong CIRT in-house. Partnering with Group-IB gives you immediate access to experienced professionals, whether responding to active incidents or preparing for future threats.

Here’s how Group-IB Incident Response protects organizations from even the most destructive cyber attacks:

• Our global incident response team comprises 80+ experts, with services available 24/7/365. This includes the 77,000+ hours of cybersecurity incident response completed by our sector-leading DFIR Laboratory, and more than 1,400 successful investigations completed by the High-Tech Crime Investigations Department.
• Group-IB’s Threat Intelligence Platform provides up-to-date information about hacktivist groups’ TTPs and their upcoming attacks. Through customized reports and notifications, businesses receive contextual information about their specific threat landscape and relevant risks, moving away from generic threat bulletins and ultimately improving the time and efficiency in risk mitigation.
• Following incident resolution, we provide two weeks of continuous infrastructure monitoring through our CERT-GIB team, ensuring your IT team can effectively implement security recommendations while maintaining operational stability.

Learn more about Group-IB Incident Response.