Procedures and Playbooks (Domain 5)
Security policies and standards are only effective when they are supported by clear, repeatable procedures. Procedures tell people exactly what to do, in what order, and under what conditions. They are the “how-to” component of an organization’s security program. When procedures are well-documented and well-followed, security becomes more consistent, more efficient, and more resilient. In this episode, we will explore three critical types of procedures you need to understand for the Security Plus exam and for real-world success. These are change management procedures, onboarding and offboarding procedures, and incident response playbooks.
Let’s begin with change management procedures. As you may recall from earlier episodes, change management is all about controlling how modifications are made to systems, software, and configurations. A change management policy sets the high-level rules. A change management procedure is the step-by-step process that teams follow to apply those rules. These procedures ensure that changes are properly reviewed, tested, approved, implemented, and documented.
A typical change management procedure begins with submitting a formal change request. This request includes a description of the change, the reason for it, the expected impact, and a plan for testing. Next, the request is reviewed by a change advisory board or a designated group responsible for evaluating risk and scheduling. Once approved, the change is implemented during a designated maintenance window, and rollback procedures are prepared in case something goes wrong. After implementation, the change is verified, and a post-change review may be conducted to capture lessons learned.
Now let’s consider a real-world example. A large cloud services provider had a change management procedure requiring all firewall rule modifications to be reviewed and approved by both the network and security teams. One day, a developer submitted a request to open a port for an application feature. During the review process, the security team noticed that the requested port was commonly targeted in denial of service attacks. Instead of approving the change immediately, they proposed an alternative configuration using a secure proxy. The change was modified, approved, and deployed with zero incidents. Because the procedure was followed, the organization avoided a potentially serious vulnerability.
The second area we will cover is onboarding and offboarding procedures. These procedures govern how employees, contractors, and other users are added to and removed from the organization’s systems. The goal is to ensure that access is granted only to the right people, with the right privileges, and that it is revoked promptly when no longer needed. Onboarding and offboarding are key components of identity and access management, and they are often audited for compliance.
The onboarding procedure typically starts with verifying the new employee’s identity and job role. This information is used to assign accounts, permissions, equipment, and access to specific systems. The procedure may also include issuing security badges, providing training, and confirming that acceptable use policies have been reviewed and signed. The offboarding procedure reverses this process. It ensures that accounts are disabled, badges and devices are returned, and access to all systems is removed or transferred.
Consider a practical example involving a technology startup that experienced a data leak after a former employee retained access to a cloud storage account. The company had no formal offboarding procedure at the time, and account deactivation was left to the discretion of individual managers. After the incident, the organization implemented a standardized offboarding checklist. It included disabling accounts, collecting devices, wiping mobile access, and notifying the human resources and information technology departments. This new procedure was tested during a round of layoffs, and every departing employee was securely offboarded with full documentation. The change significantly reduced insider threat risk.
Effective onboarding and offboarding procedures do more than reduce risk. They also improve efficiency and employee satisfaction. New hires who are properly onboarded can begin their work quickly, with access to everything they need. Former employees who are offboarded smoothly are less likely to harbor resentment or become unintentional security risks. These procedures should be reviewed regularly and automated whenever possible to ensure consistency and accountability.
Our final focus today is on incident response playbooks. These are predefined sets of actions that guide the organization in responding to specific types of security incidents. A playbook is more detailed than a policy and more specific than a procedure. It describes exactly what to do when a certain type of threat is detected, such as phishing, malware infection, denial of service, or data exfiltration.
Each playbook includes roles and responsibilities, communication steps, technical actions, and reporting requirements. For example, a phishing email playbook might begin with isolating the affected mailbox, blocking similar messages, analyzing the email headers, and checking whether any links were clicked. It would then direct staff to update filtering rules, notify potentially affected users, and escalate to the security operations center if evidence of compromise is found. Playbooks are living documents that should evolve based on new threats and lessons learned from past incidents.
Let’s examine a case study. A multinational retailer experienced an attempted credential harvesting campaign. Because the organization had a phishing playbook in place, help desk staff were able to identify the incident quickly, escalate to the security team, and activate a coordinated response. The playbook included predefined email templates, a checklist of indicators to search for, and procedures for resetting passwords. Because of this rapid and organized approach, fewer than five accounts were affected, and none of the stolen credentials were used. The playbook not only contained the incident—it also prevented panic, duplication of effort, and regulatory consequences.
The value of incident response playbooks lies in their clarity. In a high-pressure situation, people do not have time to guess or negotiate. The playbook tells them what to do, who to contact, and how to proceed. It also supports compliance by ensuring that incidents are handled in accordance with policies, legal requirements, and customer expectations. For organizations that must respond to auditors or regulators, having documented and tested playbooks is often a requirement.
As you prepare for the Security Plus exam, remember that procedures and playbooks are where policy meets action. You will need to understand not only what these documents are, but how they are used to support security. Expect questions that describe a scenario—such as an employee leaving the company or a new vulnerability being patched—and ask you what procedural steps should come next. Think about the lifecycle of events and the specific tasks that would be included in a good security procedure.
Here is a helpful tip for the exam. When you see terms like "defined steps," "repeatable process," or "role-based actions," you are probably dealing with procedures or playbooks rather than policies or standards. Read the question carefully, identify the stage of the incident or change, and select the answer that best matches the real-world sequence of actions.
If you want more examples of tested procedures, downloadable templates, and learning tools designed for exam success, be sure to visit us at Bare Metal Cyber dot com. You will find a growing library of resources, community forums, and podcast episodes to help you succeed. And if you need a trusted guide to reinforce these topics with visual aids, exam tips, and practice questions, visit Cyber Author dot me and order your copy of the official study guide.
