Most businesses still treat crisis response like it’s 2015. A ransomware alert goes out. Emails fly. Group chats explode. Someone digs out the playbook. Meanwhile, core systems are encrypted, customers are locked out, and no one’s sure who’s doing what.

In security, minutes matter. But too many organizations still burn hours just getting their bearings.

We’re operating in a new environment now – one where cyberattacks move fast, infrastructure is more fragile, and digital and physical risks are bleeding into each other.

One data center glitch can knock out emergency comms across a region. One ransomware attack can cripple manufacturing, logistics, and safety systems all at once.

Security teams, IT, and ops need to act as one unit. That’s where most responses fall apart.

Outdated Processes Can’t Keep Up

Most incident response still relies on manual coordination -- emails, spreadsheets, siloed alerts. In a ransomware scenario, that’s not just inefficient. It’s dangerous. The average time from initial access to full ransomware deployment is now just 42 minutes.

Meanwhile, the average cost of downtime remains brutally high: $9,000 per minute. Multiply that across a multi-hour outage, and the impact adds up fast – both operationally and reputationally.

SOCs are under pressure to do more than monitor threats – they’re expected to lead coordinated, real-time responses. But if there’s no automated link between detection and action, the SOC becomes a bottleneck, not a command center.

Purpose-Built Automation Is the New Standard

Modern crisis response uses automation to close the gap between alert and action. That means:

• AI that’s trained for operational impact -- not generic LLMs
• Risk-aware threat scoring that prioritizes based on real-world business context
• Notifications that reach the right people instantly -- no delays, no guesswork
• Coordination tools that bring IT, security, ops, and comms onto the same page
• Post-incident analytics that feed back into smarter future responses

This isn’t theoretical. A recent Forrester study showed that organizations using automated CEM platforms resolved incidents 4x faster and cut downtime costs by up to 65% compared to those using manual approaches.

Regulators Are Watching, Too

It’s not just a best practice – it’s increasingly expected. Between new SEC cyber disclosure rules, the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), and updated NIST 800-61 guidelines, organizations need to prove they can detect, contain, and communicate incidents fast, especially those with cross-functional impact.

Failure to do so doesn’t just increase risk. It increases liability.

The Bottom Line

You can’t stop every disruption. But you can decide how fast you respond and how well you recover. The gap between detection and action is where most of the damage happens. Automation shrinks that gap.

Manual processes may have been sufficient five years ago, but today they leave organizations exposed. In a world of expanding risk, velocity is survival.