CPCSC Level 2 Control

Last updated June 25, 2026

03.06.04Incident response

CPCSC Level 2 03.06.04: Incident Response Training

Apply incident response training to prepare the organization to identify, report, contain, and learn from security incidents for CPCSC Level 2 readiness. This guide separates the official ITSP.10.171 control language from practical implementation, evidence, auditor questions, and related controls.

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Formal Control Language

Official ITSP.10.171 wording for 03.06.04. Use the Cyber Centre publication and contract requirements as the source of truth for certification, assessment, or procurement submissions.

  • Provide incident response training to system users consistent with assigned roles and responsibilities: within [Assignment: organization-defined time period] of assuming an incident response role or responsibility or acquiring system access
  • when required by system changes
  • [Assignment: organization-defined frequency] thereafter
  • Review and update incident response training content [Assignment: organization-defined frequency] and following [Assignment: organization-defined events]

Contains information sourced from Government of Canada material used under the Open Government Licence - Canada.

What This Means In Plain English

Incident Response Training is part of the CPCSC Level 2 Incident response family. This is about showing the organization can recognize, escalate, report, contain, and learn from incidents involving specified information.

For a founder, CISO, engineer, or compliance owner, the practical question is whether incident response training is visible in real operating evidence: a setting, workflow, ticket, log, approval, review, or exception record that can survive an external assessment.

Level 2 is different from Level 1 because the evidence has to survive an external assessment. A policy statement helps, but the stronger answer is a record that shows who did the work, when it ran, what system setting or workflow enforced it, and how exceptions were handled.

How To Implement It

1

Define the in-scope systems, owners, users, vendors, and data flows affected by incident response training.

2

Maintain an incident plan, train response roles, test the process, define reporting paths, and keep incident records from triage through lessons learned.

3

Translate the formal requirement into one or two operating procedures: who performs it, how often, where it is recorded, and who approves exceptions.

4

Configure the relevant systems so the control is enforced by identity, endpoint, cloud, network, ticketing, monitoring, vendor, or documentation workflows rather than memory.

5

Keep evidence in a consistent folder, GRC system, ticket queue, or audit workspace so an assessor can trace the control from requirement to implementation to review.

Evidence Normally Gathered

Incident Response Training: incident response plan.

Incident Response Training: tabletop exercise records.

Incident Response Training: training completion reports.

Incident Response Training: incident tickets.

Incident Response Training: communication templates.

Incident Response Training: lessons learned notes.

Incident Response Training: owner assignment and review cadence.

Incident Response Training: exception, remediation, or POA&M records when the control is not fully implemented.

Common Auditor Questions

Where is incident response training implemented in the in-scope environment?

Who owns incident response training, and how do they know it is operating?

Show the evidence that proves incident response training ran during the assessment period.

What happens when incident response training fails, is bypassed, or has an exception?

How does this control connect to the system security plan, risk register, POA&M, and related CPCSC controls?

Sources

Source and attribution.

Formal control language is sourced from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security ITSP.10.171 publication. CPCSC Level 2 assessment context references the Government of Canada CPCSC program overview and ITSP.10.171-01 assessment guidance.

CPCSC Program OverviewITSP.10.171ITSP.10.171-01Open Government Licence - Canada