RRRisk domain
Readiness and response
Readiness and response covers whether people and the organization are ready for an incident and respond well: training currency for sensitive roles, reporting real incidents and near misses, emergency notification tests, incident exercises, policy acknowledgment, active exceptions and incidents attributed to a person. The domain carries the organization subject: 24 library indicators describe program and control state that belongs to no single person. Reporting is the one behavior that shortens dwell in every sequence.
Classification
- Dimensions Every signal answers one of 3 questions.
- Evidence levels
- Maturity practices One capability a program performs, scored on its own: See, Understand, Act, Prove, Govern and Culture.
- Leads to The kind of breach the evidence beneath it points toward, each anchored to a Verizon DBIR or VERIS pattern or an FBI IC3 category.
- NIST CSF 2.0
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- PR.AT-01
- RS.CO-02
- RS.MA-01
- ID.IM-02
- GV.PO-02
- GV.OV-03
- MITRE ATT&CK
-
- Cross-cutting: reporting and response shorten dwell in every tactic
A report within the hour drops a person from Stage 3 and interrupts a sequence before the SOC has to, so reporting is the behavior with the highest return in this model. Exceptions past expiry and exercises never run decide whether an incident is contained or compounded.
Three dimensions in readiness and response.
- Threat1 signals
- Threat is the incident itself: a SOC case opened and attributed to the person.
- Access1 signals
- Access is an active policy exception, which gives a person a standing gap in the controls that protect everyone else.
- Behavior11 signals
- Behavior is readiness in practice: training past due, failed assessments, repeat security tickets and technical policy violations on the risky side; completed and role-based training, policy acknowledgment, prompt starts, incident and near-miss reports, notification-test responses and exercise participation on the vigilant side.
Signals
13 signalsScroll sideways to see every column.
| ID | Signal | Dimension | Polarity | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RR-B-01 | Training past due | Behavior | Risky | SAT |
| RR-B-02 | Fails training assessments | Behavior | Risky | SAT |
| RR-B-03 | Repeat security-related help desk tickets | Behavior | Risky | HELP |
| RR-B-04 | Completes security training | Behavior | Vigilant | SAT |
| RR-B-05 | Completes role-based training | Behavior | Vigilant | SAT |
| RR-B-06 | Reports a real incident or near miss | Behavior | Vigilant | SIEM |
| RR-B-07 | Acknowledges security policies | Behavior | Vigilant | SAT |
| RR-B-08 | Starts assigned training promptly | Behavior | Vigilant | SAT |
| RR-B-09 | Technical policy violations | Behavior | Risky | SSE |
| RR-T-01 | Incident opened and attributed to the person | Threat | Neutral | SIEM |
| RR-B-10 | Responds to emergency notification tests | Behavior | Vigilant | SAT |
| RR-B-11 | Participates in incident exercises | Behavior | Vigilant | SAT |
| RR-A-01 | Holds an active policy exception | Access | Neutral | ITSM |
Headline metrics and grade bands
5 metricsA to F bands for the numbers a program reports in this domain. Bands marked "framework benchmark" are authored targets until the HRM Benchmark publishes measured values.
Scroll sideways to see every band.
| Metric | Unit | A | B | C | D | Anchor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-RR-1Role-based training currency | % of people in sensitive roles current on role training | ≥ 97 | ≥ 93 | ≥ 85 | ≥ 70 | CIS 14.9; CMMC AT.L2-3.2.2 |
| M-RR-2Report-to-click ratio | reports divided by clicks across simulations | ≥ 5 | ≥ 2 | ≥ 1 | ≥ 0.5 | Forrester HRM metrics |
| M-RR-3Incidents first reported by people | % of human-related incidents opened from a person's report | ≥ 60 | ≥ 45 | ≥ 30 | ≥ 15 | Framework benchmark; DBIR detection sources |
| M-RR-4Time to report a real incident | median hours from event to report | ≤ 1 | ≤ 4 | ≤ 24 | ≤ 72 | Forrester average incident reporting time |
| M-RR-5Policy exceptions past expiry | % of active exceptions beyond their approved end date | ≤ 0 | ≤ 5 | ≤ 15 | ≤ 30 | Framework benchmark; CSF GV.PO-02 |
Indicator library
78 indicators- I.0069Responds promptly with correct action
- I.0070Does not respond to emergency notification test
- I.0071Responds to emergency notification test
- I.0072Verifies receipt of emergency communications through proper channels
- I.0073Completes in-person trainings
- I.0074Has overdue trainings
- I.0075Fails to attempt assigned trainings
- I.0076Fails assigned trainings
- I.0077Completes assigned trainings late
- I.0078Avoids training
- I.0079Completes assigned trainings
- I.0080Completes assigned trainings on time
- I.0081Passes assigned trainings
- I.0082Attempts assigned trainings
- I.0083Re-attempts failed trainings
- I.0085Skips interactive training modules
- I.0089Skips assigned trainings
- I.0258Files incident tickets without actionable evidence
- I.0259Misroutes or mislabels incident severity
- I.0260Misclassifies or overuses incident reporting channels
- I.0261Fails to recognize or detect security threats
- I.0262Deviates from documented incident reporting workflows
- I.0263Demonstrates gaps in incident participation or coordination
- I.0264Delays or fails to complete assigned security training consistently
- I.0265Circumvents or evades security training platforms
- I.0266Completes security awareness training with low engagement
- I.0267Completes training misaligned with role or risk responsibilities
- I.0268Ignores or delays pager acknowledgments beyond SLA
- I.0269Creates duplicate incident tickets for the same event
- I.0270Shares incident details in public or unsanctioned channels
- I.0271Performs containment without documenting actions
- I.0272Submits malformed or context-free indicators
- I.0273Mishandles or overwrites incident evidence
- I.0274Bypasses controls citing business urgency without approval
- I.0275Fails to complete post-incident actions
- I.0276Declines or minimally engages in incident simulations
- I.0277Embeds secrets or PII in free-text fields
- I.0278Misses regulatory or customer notification triggers
- I.0279Acknowledges pager alerts within SLA
- I.0280Escalates incidents correctly on first attempt
- I.0281Attaches relevant evidence to incident tickets
- I.0282Correlates related alerts into a single incident
- I.0283Uses approved channels for incident coordination
- I.0284Documents containment actions with timestamps
- I.0285Provides high-quality indicators of compromise
- I.0286Follows playbooks and SOAR runbooks as written
- I.0287Preserves chain of custody for digital evidence
- I.0288Requests emergency exceptions with proper approval
- I.0289Completes post-incident action items on time
- I.0290Leads effective incident handoffs across shifts
- I.0291Participates in incident simulations with high engagement
- I.0292Uses secure storage for sensitive ticket data
- I.0293Requests timely legal/compliance notification when required
- I.0330Reviews remote work security policies regularly
- I.0412Fails to maintain adequate audit trails for sensitive data access
- I.0413Allows circumvention of secure web gateways
- I.0414Fails to require acknowledgement of acceptable use policies
- I.0415Does not review or address security training gaps
- I.0416Fails to regularly audit access to regulated systems
- I.0417Allows shadow IT use without policy enforcement
- I.0418Allows transmission of business data via personal channels
- I.0419Lacks effective user behavior analytics capability
- I.0420Lacks RBAC enforcement on ePHI systems
- I.0421Lack modern authentication mechanisms to effectively manage privileged accounts
- I.0422Fails to participate in regular risk assessments
- I.0423Lacks sufficient review of policy exception requests
- I.0424Grants policy exceptions without adequate revocation process
- I.0425Extends policy exceptions beyond minimum requirement
- I.0426Approves repeated exceptions to endpoint protection policies
- I.0427Grants remote access without conditional controls
- I.0428Approved use of personal devices without device management or risk acceptance
- I.0429Fails to centrally track policy exceptions
- I.0430Fails to revoke policy exceptions in a timely manner
- I.0431Fails to escalate critical infrastructure policy violations
- I.0432Meets access control target metrics
- I.0433Meets risk mitigation target metrics
- I.0434Enforces automated process for policy exceptions
- I.0435Conducts audits of subordinate organizations
Cohorts in this domain
1Cite this term
"Readiness and response" (RR), Human Risk Management Framework v2.0.0, Living Security, CC BY 4.0. https://www.humanriskmanagement.com/taxonomy/domains/readiness-and-response
Part of the open HRM Taxonomy, CC BY 4.0. Download the taxonomy as JSON · What's new in 2.0.
The initial assessment
Find your level.Then fix what matters.
18 questions, about 4 minutes and nothing to type before the result: your level, a score for each practice and three first playbooks, each Easy, Medium or Hard.