An Incident Response Playbook Guide for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly targeted by cyber threats ranging from ransomware and phishing attacks to insider misuse and supply chain compromises. Unlike large corporations, SMEs often lack dedicated security teams, mature processes, and adequate resources to respond effectively to incidents due to the high cost of security resources. This guide provides a practical, step-by-step response playbook tailored to the unique constraints and needs of SMEs. This playbook outlines the preparation, detection, analysis, containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident review phases. By adopting structured incident response practices, SMEs can improve their resilience, minimize business disruption, and meet compliance requirements without the overhead of enterprise-level frameworks. This document serves as a hands-on reference to help SME leaders and IT staff respond to security incidents confidently and systematically.