Cyber Incident Response in 2025: A Strategic Imperative for General Counsel

The scene feels almost familiar based on the stats and headlines around the growing number of incidents. It’s 2:03 a.m. Your phone buzzes on the nightstand, and the caller ID tells you everything you need to know before you answer. It’s your CISO.

“We have a situation.”

A visceral reaction is understandable, but feeling helpless and out of control does not need to be inevitable. Cyber incident response begins with readiness, trusting your team, and executing the plan you put in place for these moments.

It is possible to shift the script to ensure that legal is ready, steady, and leading from the center of the response.

When the Incident Becomes Reality

In 2024, the global average cost of a data breach rose to $4.88 million, reflecting a 10% increase from the previous year, according to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report. The impact goes beyond lost data. It includes reputational harm, business disruption, and the rising complexity of legal exposure. At the same time, insurers reported a 14% rise in large cyber claims, according to Allianz’s 2024 Cyber Risk Trends report. These are no longer edge cases. They have become the norm.

Cyber incidents used to be the burden of a few unfortunate entities, but now they will inevitably affect most organizations at some point. In this environment, preventative security measures alone are insufficient, and the leadership should focus on what to do when an incident occurs. General counsel are essential to cyber incident response. Legal teams are positioned to help triage risk and manage disclosure obligations across global jurisdictions. Cyber incidents today require legal leadership that is informed, involved, and ready.

The Cyber Landscape Has Shifted

Litigation now follows a growing number of incidents, especially those involving personal data, critical systems, or third-party failures. According to Chubb and the Insurance Information Institute, third-party litigation following ransomware attacks rose by 75 percent in 2024 compared to the 2020–2021 average.

Governments across North America, Europe, and APAC are accelerating regulatory action. Notification timelines are shrinking, and enforcement efforts are intensifying. Legal teams must now interpret and respond to overlapping regulatory requirements, often across multiple jurisdictions.

Executive and board scrutiny has also increased. Leaders expect rapid, informed legal guidance that balances transparency, risk, and business continuity.

An Essential Role for General Counsel

General counsel are expected to be more than advisors. They are risk managers, communicators, and incident coordinators. They help shape the early response, preserve privilege, and maintain credibility with internal and external stakeholders.

They also play a central role in setting the tone. Legal is often the steady hand in the room when pressure peaks, guiding communications, protecting relationships, and keeping the organization aligned.

Data identification is an increasingly vital area of readiness and response. Legacy review workflows built for litigation do not support incident response timelines. General counsel must oversee a process that delivers faster and more focused ways to locate sensitive data using teams and tools aligned with incident response regulatory demands.

Before an incident occurs, legal leaders have the opportunity to shape not just policy but performance. The following best practices reflect practical steps General counsel can take to prepare for, respond to, and lead during a cyber event.

Six Best Practices for GC-Led Incident Response

1. Build Legal into the Plan: Legal teams should be active participants in designing, testing, and updating incident response plans. Their involvement ensures legal risk, reporting obligations, and escalation triggers are identified as critical elements at the outset.
2. Pre-Negotiate Partner Relationship: Having trusted partners in place supports a faster response. Pre-approved providers for forensics, PR, and data mining help restore and maintain control. Legal should also review insurance policy terms, which will likely influence service provider options.
3. Expect More from Data Mining: Traditional eDiscovery tools often delay the process. General counsel benefit from partnering with teams that can analyze and triage data with urgency and precision. Leveraging specialized teams, technology and workflow better position organizations to meet increasingly short notification timelines and provide clarity under pressure.
4. Protect Privilege from the Start: Early coordination with external counsel and forensic teams helps preserve privilege and supports informed, protected conversations from the outset.
5. Own the Narrative: Legal should work closely with communications teams to guide disclosures and internal briefings. Understanding the scope and composition of the data early allows for consistent, defensible messaging.
6. Drive Lessons into Policy: Each incident offers an opportunity to learn about organizational data and improve data governance and readiness. General counsel should lead post-incident reviews to strengthen internal policies specific to retention and date governance, address compliance gaps, and prepare for future response needs.

As the cyber landscape continues to evolve, so do the expectations placed on legal teams. General counsel must look beyond the immediate response and anticipate the structural changes reshaping how organizations prepare for and respond to incidents.

Trends to Watch

Legal teams that lead well during an incident are best positioned for what comes next. These broader shifts are redefining expectations for legal leadership in cyber preparedness and response.

Legal teams should monitor several developments in how cyber risk intersects with legal strategy:

• Expansion of breach notification laws across multiple jurisdictions

Breach notification rules are evolving quickly. More countries and states are tightening timelines, broadening definitions of personal data, and imposing higher penalties for noncompliance. For General counsel, this means tracking and aligning response protocols with a patchwork of standards.

• Higher frequency of post-incident investigations and class action lawsuits

Post-incident fallout is expanding. Regulatory reviews, audits, and litigation now follow many breaches. General counsel play a central role in managing inquiries, supporting defensible documentation, and guiding the organization through potential legal proceedings.

• Rising expectations for data mining precision

The ability to pinpoint sensitive data quickly after an incident has become a core expectation. Legal teams that rely on traditional eDiscovery review workflows often encounter delays and gaps, as well as insufficient results. Data mining methods purpose-built for incident response are valued for their speed, precision, and accuracy. These workflows are tailored for data identification and classification. General counsel who recognize the distinction between data mining and eDiscovery are better positioned to meet regulatory timelines and maintain internal trust.

• Greater board involvement in incident response

Boards are taking a more active role in overseeing cyber preparedness. They expect real-time updates when incidents occur and look to legal leaders to provide clear, risk-based reporting. General counsel must be ready to speak the language of governance, liability, and business continuity.

• Cyber risk integration into ESG and enterprise risk frameworks

Cybersecurity is now viewed as a component of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting. Investors and regulators are pressing organizations to quantify and disclose cyber risk alongside other operational threats. Legal teams are being asked to help articulate how cyber controls fit into broader governance strategies.

Where Legal Leadership Makes the Difference

Cyber incident response is more than a technical imperative; it is legal, reputational, and strategic. General counsel are uniquely positioned to lead the process with clarity and consistency.

Readiness shows. Moving forward, it is a defining expectation.