An incident response retainer, agreed before you need it.
F Creative Studio 360 puts the contact path, the authority and the commercial terms in place for organisations in any country.
The expensive minutes are the ones spent introducing yourselves.
A retainer is not a certificate and not a claim that F Creative Studio 360 is an appointed regulator provider. Response still follows NIST SP 800-61. The Australian Cyber Security Centre recommends having a response partner before an incident. That advice is useful. It does not make the retainer an Australian-only service.
- Agreed before the call
- A retainer fixes who you call, what they already know about the environment, and the commercial terms. Those terms are in the contract, not on this page.
- Priority is the point
- When an incident starts, a client with a retainer is already onboarded. A new engagement still has to confirm authority and scope.
- Preparation is part of it
- The hours in the retainer can be used, when the contract says so, for a plan review or a tabletop. Unused time is not automatically a penetration test.
- It is not insurance
- A retainer is access to responders. It does not pay a loss, and it is not advice to buy or claim on a policy.
Before an incident
- A named contact path, agreed in the contract.
- An onboarding note: critical systems, people, and who can authorise action.
- A review of the incident response plan, when that is included.
- A tabletop, when that is included.
- Commercial terms written down before an emergency.
When you call
- A call or email against the path in the contract.
- Triage under the response window the contract states.
- Containment only within the authority already given.
- Preservation of evidence for a later forensic scope, if you need one.
- A factual brief for executives. Counsel owns any filing.
Common questions
What is an incident response retainer?+
An agreement, made before an incident, that F Creative Studio 360 will respond for the entities named in it. The response window, the included time and the rate for extra time are in the contract.
What if we do not use the time?+
The contract says what happens to unused time. It can be applied to a plan review or a tabletop when that is what you agreed. It does not silently become a penetration test.
Do we still need this if we have an internal team?+
Often yes. The retainer adds people and a forensic option when the internal team is already inside the incident. It does not replace that team.
Where does this apply?+
For organisations in any country. A local notification rule is relevant only when that organisation is subject to it, and counsel decides whether to notify.
How quickly can a retainer be in place?+
Onboarding depends on how much of the environment must be understood first. F Creative Studio 360 will say what is required before the retainer can be used. There is no obligation to proceed.
Put the terms in writing while nothing is on fire.
F Creative Studio 360 will look at the entities and the internal team, then say what a sensible retainer includes.