Building incident, crisis, and continuity capabilities for NIS 2

Implementing NIS 2 requirements is not only about preventive controls. It also requires operational readiness: the ability to manage incidents, coordinate under pressure, and restore services. This is why the program structure typically includes incident management, crisis management, and business continuity as connected capabilities.Incident management covers detection, triage, containment, eradication, and recovery activities at an operational level. It requires defined roles, escalation paths, procedures, and supporting tools. In a NIS 2 context, incident handling must be consistent and auditable, with clear evidence such as tickets, timelines, decisions, and lessons learned.Crisis management addresses situations where operational handling is not enough and executive coordination is needed. This includes decision making with incomplete information, stakeholder management, communication, and prioritization across multiple impacted services. A crisis structure provides cadence, reporting formats, and a way to align technical remediation with business priorities.Business continuity provides the recovery logic for critical services. It defines how services can be maintained or restored, what dependencies must be available, and what constraints exist. Continuity planning should be aligned with asset criticality and risk scenarios, and it should integrate with incident response and crisis coordination rather than run as a separate discipline.The common thread across these capabilities is testing. Tabletop exercises, technical simulations, and crisis role play validate that escalation works, communication is coherent, and recovery steps are realistic. Testing also generates evidence and performance insights, which feed continual improvement. This cycle is what turns a compliance program into a resilient operational capability.