Incident Response Services for Dallas and Fort Worth Businesses

For retainer clients, we guarantee initial triage within 2 hours, 24/7/365. For emergency engagements, we typically begin remote triage within 4-6 hours of first contact. On-site deployment across the DFW metro — Dallas, Fort Worth, McKinney, Plano, and surrounding areas — can happen same day. Organizations on our Command plan already have 24/7 SOC monitoring, which means threats are detected and contained before they become full-blown incidents.

IR retainers are priced based on your organization size, industry, and the scope of pre-engagement work included (tabletop exercises, IR playbook development, environment documentation). Emergency engagements are billed on a time-and-materials basis at pre-disclosed hourly rates — we do not charge emergency premiums because that creates the wrong incentive. IR costs vary considerably based on the complexity and duration of the incident, but a contained ransomware event in a 50-person organization typically runs $15,000-$40,000 in total IR fees. That figure rises sharply with dwell time, scope of exfiltration, and regulatory notification requirements. An IR retainer is substantially cheaper than an emergency engagement for equivalent scope because it reduces the time-to-triage and allows pre-incident planning to compress total engagement hours. Contact us for a retainer quote.

An IR retainer is a proactive, pre-negotiated agreement signed before any incident occurs. It guarantees a faster response SLA (2 hours vs. 4-6 hours), locks in pre-disclosed rates, and includes proactive services like an annual tabletop exercise and a custom IR playbook. When an incident happens, the contract is already signed and the billing terms are already agreed — your legal team is not reviewing a vendor agreement while the attacker is active in your network. An emergency engagement is reactive — you call us during an active incident with no prior relationship. We still respond, but without the SLA guarantee, without pre-negotiated rates, and without prior knowledge of your environment. For most organizations, a retainer pays for itself in a single incident through faster containment and lower total engagement hours.

We coordinate directly with your cyber insurance carrier and their panel counsel from the first day of the engagement. Our forensic reports are structured to meet the evidentiary standards carriers expect — they include a detailed attack timeline, affected data inventory, root cause analysis, and remediation documentation. Many policies require the insured to notify the carrier before engaging IR vendors; we help you navigate that process and can communicate directly with the carrier's breach coach on your behalf. Note that some carriers maintain preferred vendor panels — we recommend confirming your policy terms before an incident occurs, not during one. Having an IR retainer in place can also reduce your cyber insurance premiums when disclosed to the carrier at renewal.

We acquire and preserve forensic images of affected systems using court-admissible methodology — bit-for-bit disk images with cryptographic hash verification (MD5 and SHA-256) to establish chain of custody. Volatile memory (RAM) is captured from running systems before any isolation or shutdown, which preserves encryption keys, active network connections, and in-memory malware that would be lost if the system were powered off. Log files, email headers, and network traffic captures are preserved in their original format. We document all evidence collection actions with timestamps and analyst signatures. If you choose to involve the FBI, Secret Service (for financial crimes), or local law enforcement, we provide them with your forensic package and can brief investigators directly. We also help you preserve evidence in formats compatible with civil litigation if you pursue recovery from a threat actor or negligent vendor.

First, do not shut down affected systems — powering off destroys volatile forensic evidence in memory. Disconnect compromised machines from the network but leave them running. Do not communicate about the incident over potentially compromised email. Call us at 512-518-4408 or submit an emergency request. Document everything you have observed with timestamps. Do not attempt to negotiate with ransomware operators on your own — this can have legal implications under OFAC sanctions rules if the operator is a sanctioned entity. Do not delete logs, run antivirus scans that would alter timestamps, or rebuild systems before we have a chance to acquire forensic images.

A managed SOC monitors your environment 24/7 to detect and contain threats before they escalate. Incident response is what happens when prevention fails and a confirmed breach is underway. Think of the SOC as your security guard and IR as your emergency room. Ideally you have both. Our Command plan includes full SOC coverage with built-in incident escalation — the most cost-effective way to reduce both the probability and cost of a breach for DFW businesses.

Yes. We help you determine notification obligations under applicable regulations including the Texas Data Breach Notification Act, HIPAA Breach Notification Rule, PCI DSS incident reporting requirements, CMMC and DFARS reporting for defense contractors, and state-specific laws for multi-state incidents. Our forensic analysis establishes exactly what data was accessed or exfiltrated — which is what determines notification scope and triggers regulatory timelines. We coordinate with your legal counsel to ensure compliance with all deadlines. Notification delays are among the most common sources of regulatory penalties after a breach.

Regular penetration testing significantly reduces breach risk by finding exploitable vulnerabilities before attackers do. Combined with 24/7 SOC monitoring, email security, dark web monitoring, and tested data backups, you build defense-in-depth that makes incidents far less likely — and far less damaging when they do occur. Our Command plan includes an annual pen test and full SOC coverage, the most comprehensive prevention stack we offer.

Yes. We handle incident response across Dallas, Fort Worth, McKinney, Plano, Frisco, Arlington, and the entire DFW metroplex. Ransomware is the most common incident type we see in the region — read our analysis of ransomware attacks targeting Fort Worth businesses for the playbook. Our McKinney headquarters is within driving distance for same-day on-site deployment anywhere in DFW. Remote triage begins within hours regardless of location.