This is a working draft. A full Code of Conduct and Terms of Membership document will be published once the Editorial Committee and Forum chairs are in place. Until then, this page lays out the working rules so it is clear what you are joining.
Who operates IRC
The Incident Response Consortium is an independent community of practice. The day-to-day operating team is provided by Outbreach, a UK incident response practice and founding partner. Outbreach pays for the site, the events programme and the operating overhead in Year 1, and is named publicly as a partner. IRC is the convening voice in everything you read here; Outbreach is named in the credits but does not centre itself in IRC communications.
The full list of founding partners is on the Partners disclosure page.
Membership tiers
IRC operates tiered membership. Each tier has different rights and obligations.
Open
Anyone with a credible interest in incident response and education. Newsletter, public site, public community calls. No application; sign up to the newsletter and you are Open by default.
Affiliate
Anyone working in or adjacent to the discipline. Free, application-based. Listed in the member directory with the name and role you provide. Eligible to attend invitation-only community events, contribute Resources subject to editorial review, and vote in any community polls.
Practitioner Member
Active incident response practitioners with a track record. Application-based with light vetting. All Affiliate rights, plus eligibility to join Practitioner Forum discussions and submit talks to the events programme.
Boardroom
NEDs, Chairs and Audit/Risk Committee leads. Invitation-based. All Practitioner rights, plus access to the Boardroom Forum: a private peer group operating under Chatham House Rule.
Partner
Organisations that fund the community at the agreed tier. Listed publicly on the Partners page. Partner staff can apply individually for Practitioner Member status on their own merits.
Founding Partner
The original cohort of organisations that funded Year 1. Listed prominently on the Partners page. Same rights as Partner.
Code of Conduct in summary
- Peer-to-peer voice. Practitioner to practitioner. Plain English. No sales pitches in community spaces.
- Chatham House Rule applies in Boardroom Forum sessions and any forum session marked Chatham. The information can be used; the speaker and their organisation cannot be identified.
- No recruiting at events unless the event is explicitly a careers session.
- No vendor pitching in community spaces. Partners are named openly; that is the disclosure. They do not pitch in forums or community calls.
- Confidentiality of incident details shared in any member-only setting. If a member shares an incident under the assumption it stays in the room, it stays in the room.
- Respect. No discrimination, harassment or bullying. The operating team can remove members for cause.
The full Code of Conduct will be published as a separate document during Year 2, with input from the Editorial Committee and Forum chairs.
Content you submit
If you submit a Resource (article, playbook, talk, template) to the IRC Resources library:
- You keep ownership of the work.
- You grant IRC a perpetual, non-exclusive licence to publish it on the IRC site with your attribution.
- You can ask us to take it down at any time. We will, within 14 days.
- Other community members can read and learn from the work. They cannot republish it elsewhere without your permission.
- IRC may translate, lightly edit for house style, or excerpt. Substantive edits will be flagged back to you before publication.
Removing a member
The operating team can remove a member for cause: serious breach of the Code of Conduct, dishonesty in an application, behaviour that puts other members at risk, or persistent low-grade misbehaviour after warning. Removal is a last resort and the operating team will explain the reason in writing.
What this site is, and is not
This site is a community resource. Nothing here is legal, regulatory or specialist incident response advice for any specific organisation or situation. Members share their experience in good faith; what works for one organisation may not work for yours.
Changes to these terms
If we change the membership tiers or the Code of Conduct materially, current members will be notified by email and asked to acknowledge. The version date below tells you which version applies.
Version: Working draft. Last reviewed May 2026. Questions: hello@incidentresponse.com.