Cybersecurity incidents are no longer just a “big business” problem. Today, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are increasingly under threat — not because their data is less valuable, but because attackers know many lack structured response plans when things go wrong.
According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), over 94,000 cybercrime reports were received in the 2023–24 financial year — an increase of nearly 24% from the previous year. The average cost of a cybercrime incident for small businesses was reported at around $46,000, highlighting the financial and operational impact on unprepared organisations (ACSC, 2024).
At Oreta, we’ve seen this pattern repeatedly in our Security Operations Centre (SOC). The difference between a quick recovery and a business-wide disruption often comes down to one thing:
Having clear, actionable playbooks and well-defined incident response processes.
What Is a Cybersecurity Playbook?
Think of a playbook as your organisation’s cyber emergency manual — a structured, step-by-step guide that your team can follow when an incident occurs, whether it’s a phishing email, a compromised account, or a ransomware attack.
A strong cybersecurity playbook clearly outlines:
- Triggers: Events that activate the playbook (e.g., phishing email, malware alert, suspicious sign-in).
- Roles & Responsibilities: Who investigates, who approves containment, and who communicates updates.
- Immediate Containment: Actions such as disabling accounts, blocking senders, and isolating affected devices.
- Investigation Steps: Checking email headers, audit logs, message traces, and sign-in histories.
- Recovery: Resetting credentials, re-enabling access after verification, and running security scans.
- Post-Incident Review: Identifying process gaps, conducting staff training, and updating the playbook for future readiness.
However, executing these steps manually can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, especially for smaller teams.
The Role of Automation in Incident Response
This is where automation becomes a game-changer — and a key differentiator in Oreta’s SOC approach. Once customers are onboarded to our SOC, we help them streamline and automate their incident response workflows, significantly reducing manual effort and response times.
When a security event is detected in our SOC, automated playbooks trigger instant actions such as:
- Extracting email headers from phishing emails for analysis
- Enriching IPs, URLs, and file hashes using real-time threat intelligence
- Isolating affected hosts from the network
- Blocking malicious IPs or URLs at the firewall or web application firewall (WAF)
- Disabling compromised accounts and revoking active sessions
- Sending automated alerts to management or response teams
This automation-first approach not only accelerates response time but also reduces human error and ensures consistent handling of threats. A Ponemon Institute study found that automation and orchestration can cut the average incident response time by up to 74%, directly improving containment and recovery outcomes (Ponemon Institute, 2023).
Building Readiness Before the Incident
At Oreta, we help organisations of all sizes — particularly SMBs — build cyber resilience before incidents occur. Our SOC services and tailored playbooks ensure that when an incident happens, your teams don’t waste critical minutes deciding what to do next.
Because in cybersecurity, readiness always beats reaction.
Cyber incidents aren’t a matter of if — they’re a matter of when.
So, when that next suspicious email hits your inbox, you don’t want your team asking, “What now?”
You want them saying, “We’ve got this.”
References
Australian Cyber Security Centre. (2025). Annual Cyber Threat Report 2024–25. Retrieved from https://www.cyber.gov.au/about-us/view-all-content/reports-and-statistics/annual-cyber-threat-report-2024-2025
Ponemon Institute. (2023). The Cost of Data Breach Report 2023. Retrieved from www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach
