Incident Response Retainer

Pre-negotiated terms, defined SLAs, named responders, and environment pre-work done in advance, so hour zero goes to response instead of procurement.
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Definition

What is an incident response retainer?

An incident response retainer is a pre-negotiated agreement with an incident response team: terms signed, response SLAs defined, contacts named, and your environment documented before anything goes wrong. When an incident hits, the first call starts the response. Without a retainer, hour zero goes to master service agreements, conflict checks, and access provisioning while the attacker keeps working. This page covers the retainer itself; our incident response services page describes how we run the response once engaged.

Services

What does an incident response retainer include?

Pre-negotiated terms
Defined response SLAs
Environment pre-work
Coverage windows
Full incident response
Readiness credits

Pre-negotiated terms and rates

The master agreement, rates, liability terms, and scope are signed once, in advance. When an incident starts, nobody is redlining a contract at 2 a.m., and your counsel has already approved the paper the response runs on.

Defined response SLAs

Each tier carries a guaranteed response window with named primary and backup responders and a defined escalation path. You know who answers, how fast, and what happens in the first hour, because it is written down and rehearsed.

Environment pre-work

Before the retainer goes live, we verify your logging baseline, agree access paths and break-glass procedures, and file an environment brief covering identity, endpoints, network, cloud, and backups. Responders arrive already knowing the terrain, which is where response time is actually won.

Coverage windows

Tiers run from business hours to 24x7 intake. The right window depends on how your team is staffed overnight and what your cyber insurance expects. We set it during scoping rather than defaulting everyone to the most expensive option.

Full incident response delivery

Invoking the retainer starts the full response: scoping, containment, forensic collection and analysis, eradication, and recovery, with reporting written for your insurer, counsel, and board. Same methodology as our incident response service, with the paperwork already done.

Readiness credits

Unused hours convert to readiness work: tabletop exercises, IR plan reviews, logging improvements, and detection tuning. The retainer stays useful in quiet years, and the readiness work makes the loud years shorter.

Our approach

Our approach

01

Scope the environment

Endpoints, cloud accounts, identity providers, and the systems that would hurt most. Scoping sets the tier and the price.

02

Sign terms once

Master agreement, rates, and scope approved by your counsel in a calm week. This is the paperwork that would otherwise eat hour zero.

03

Baseline the logging

We verify the telemetry a response would need actually exists: identity logs, EDR coverage, network visibility, and backup integrity.

04

Agree access paths

Break-glass procedures, access approvals, and escalation contacts agreed and documented, so responders reach the environment in minutes.

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Want hour zero to start the response?

Speak with BD Emerson about coverage tiers, SLAs, and the pre-work your environment needs before an incident finds it.

Our Advantage

Why BD Emerson for incident response

Responders who did the pre-work

The team that baselined your logging and mapped your access paths answers the call. Context transfers in minutes because it never left.

Pre-work in every tier

Logging baseline, access paths, and the environment brief come standard, because response speed depends on preparation more than on the SLA number.

Insurer and counsel ready

Reporting is structured for cyber insurance carriers and breach counsel from the first hour, and we work at counsel's direction under privilege when asked.

Reviews

What our customers say

Great consulting firms for scaling security, compliance, and appsec.

Outstanding partner in Technical and Cyber Due Diligence

Appsec maturity and application hardening.

BD Emerson helped us simplfiy our compliance management.

BD Emerson did such a phenomenal job. What started as privacy support quickly became a full partnership across compliance, engineering, and even business operations. They’re embedded with our team. They understand our product. They move fast. They’re simply invaluable.

Adam Ben Jacobs

CTO @ OneStep GPS

Great consulting firms for scaling security, compliance, and appsec.

Outstanding partner in Technical and Cyber Due Diligence

Appsec maturity and application hardening.

BD Emerson helped us simplfiy our compliance management.

BD Emerson did such a phenomenal job. What started as privacy support quickly became a full partnership across compliance, engineering, and even business operations. They’re embedded with our team. They understand our product. They move fast. They’re simply invaluable.

Adam Ben Jacobs

CTO @ OneStep GPS

We had a hard time finding the right company to partner with in support of our compliance journey. Some vendors sell the idea that they do the work, but then you end up doing everything. The ambiguity is what killed our last project. BD Emerson’s team has such great technical knowledge and understands the standard so well that they made us comfortable with moving fast. This has led to us closing major enterprise customers that were previously out of reach because of security and compliance.

Tom Watkins

CEO @ AMI AssetTrack

Lead an enterprise initiative to overhaul the organization's technology stack from ecommerce, corporate tech, and corporate security.

Supported ISO 42001 exercise and served as internal auditor.

Rubrik's privacy and compliance team began with the backbone of BD Emerson. BD Emerson supported building out the privacy program, GRC (ISO 27001, SOC 2, CMMC, FedRAMP), and the appsec function.

We needed a partner who could move quickly, without sacrificing precision. BD Emerson brought the expertise, structure, and speed we were looking for. Their team became an extension of ours, embedding themselves across the organization, guiding us step by step, and giving us confidence in areas we hadn’t tackled before. The internal audit they conducted was so detailed that even the external auditors called it out. Achieving ISO 27001 with zero nonconformities says everything you need to know about the quality of the partnership.

Walid Souilem

CTO @ FGI Worldwide

We had a hard time finding the right company to partner with in support of our compliance journey. Some vendors sell the idea that they do the work, but then you end up doing everything. The ambiguity is what killed our last project. BD Emerson’s team has such great technical knowledge and understands the standard so well that they made us comfortable with moving fast. This has led to us closing major enterprise customers that were previously out of reach because of security and compliance.

Tom Watkins

CEO @ AMI AssetTrack

Lead an enterprise initiative to overhaul the organization's technology stack from ecommerce, corporate tech, and corporate security.

Supported ISO 42001 exercise and served as internal auditor.

Rubrik's privacy and compliance team began with the backbone of BD Emerson. BD Emerson supported building out the privacy program, GRC (ISO 27001, SOC 2, CMMC, FedRAMP), and the appsec function.

We needed a partner who could move quickly, without sacrificing precision. BD Emerson brought the expertise, structure, and speed we were looking for. Their team became an extension of ours, embedding themselves across the organization, guiding us step by step, and giving us confidence in areas we hadn’t tackled before. The internal audit they conducted was so detailed that even the external auditors called it out. Achieving ISO 27001 with zero nonconformities says everything you need to know about the quality of the partnership.

Walid Souilem

CTO @ FGI Worldwide

BD Emerson didn’t just help us meet our compliance goals; they integrated security and privacy into the core of our operations. I highly recommend BD Emerson to anyone seeking SOC 2 or GDPR compliance, or simply looking to enhance their security team and boost customer trust in their product and services. Their dedication and expertise have been invaluable to our success.

Padraig Reilly

CEO, Boxcore

BD Emerson understood our business requirements and worked side-by-side with us. The policies and controls we developed together not only meet compliance standards but improve how we operate day to day.

Matt Meierdierks

IT Manager, Lincoln Industries

From day one, BD Emerson brought urgency, clarity, and a sharp understanding of what truly matters to our business — earning and keeping customer trust. They went beyond helping us meet compliance requirements; they helped build a foundation for secure, scalable growth. That kind of partnership is rare.

Jason Marker

CEO @ LifeLenz

BD Emerson didn’t just help us pass an audit—they helped us build a sustainable culture of security.

Alexey Indeev

CTO Spare

BD Emerson was essential in helping our company navigate the daunting process of leveling up our security infrastructure. BD Emerson’s impressive expertise and confidence throughout the process helped our team exceed HIPAA and SOC 2 Type 1 standards quickly, distilling what can be an overwhelming process into a streamlined, organized effort. From day one they began adding value and getting us on course. With their help we delivered on a massive security overhaul with both extreme efficiency and thorough attention to details. Because of BD Emerson’s support, we’ve increased our clients’ trust in Titan Intake and the life-changing work it accomplishes for those seeking specialist referrals.

Patrick Bruce

CEO, Titan Intake

BD Emerson didn’t just help us meet our compliance goals; they integrated security and privacy into the core of our operations. I highly recommend BD Emerson to anyone seeking SOC 2 or GDPR compliance, or simply looking to enhance their security team and boost customer trust in their product and services. Their dedication and expertise have been invaluable to our success.

Padraig Reilly

CEO, Boxcore

BD Emerson understood our business requirements and worked side-by-side with us. The policies and controls we developed together not only meet compliance standards but improve how we operate day to day.

Matt Meierdierks

IT Manager, Lincoln Industries

From day one, BD Emerson brought urgency, clarity, and a sharp understanding of what truly matters to our business — earning and keeping customer trust. They went beyond helping us meet compliance requirements; they helped build a foundation for secure, scalable growth. That kind of partnership is rare.

Jason Marker

CEO @ LifeLenz

BD Emerson didn’t just help us pass an audit—they helped us build a sustainable culture of security.

Alexey Indeev

CTO Spare

BD Emerson was essential in helping our company navigate the daunting process of leveling up our security infrastructure. BD Emerson’s impressive expertise and confidence throughout the process helped our team exceed HIPAA and SOC 2 Type 1 standards quickly, distilling what can be an overwhelming process into a streamlined, organized effort. From day one they began adding value and getting us on course. With their help we delivered on a massive security overhaul with both extreme efficiency and thorough attention to details. Because of BD Emerson’s support, we’ve increased our clients’ trust in Titan Intake and the life-changing work it accomplishes for those seeking specialist referrals.

Patrick Bruce

CEO, Titan Intake

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is an incident response retainer?

How is a retainer different from pay-as-you-go incident response?

What response SLAs do you offer?

What does an incident response retainer cost?

What happens to unused retainer hours?

What pre-work do you do on our environment?

Does the retainer include forensics?

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