Incident Response Services in Cary, NC
When ransomware locks your Cary office’s systems or a breach exposes customer data, the first hours determine the outcome. Petronella Technology Group, Inc. provides emergency incident response and breach remediation for Cary businesses — led by Craig Petronella, a licensed digital forensic examiner with 30+ years of experience investigating cyberattacks across the Research Triangle. Same-day deployment to any Cary location. Forensic-grade methodology. Compliance-ready reporting.
BBB Accredited Since 2003 • Founded 2002 • 2,500+ Clients • CMMC Certified Registered Practitioner
Cyber Incidents Target Cary’s High-Value Industries
SAS Institute, Epic Games, pharma labs, and financial firms make Cary a prime target for sophisticated threat actors.
Ransomware Threatens Operations
Ransomware gangs target mid-market companies in affluent tech corridors like Cary. A successful attack can encrypt file servers, ERP databases, and backup systems simultaneously. Without expert incident response, Cary businesses face weeks of downtime, data loss, and six-figure ransom demands.
Data Breaches Trigger Compliance Cascades
A breach at a Cary healthcare practice triggers HIPAA’s 60-day notification rule. A breach at a pharma company may implicate FDA data integrity requirements. A financial services breach triggers state and federal notification laws. Proper incident response ensures every regulatory obligation is met within required timelines.
Speed Determines Damage
The average attacker dwell time is 21 days. Early detection and rapid containment can reduce a potential catastrophe to a manageable event. Our incident response team deploys to Cary the same day, containing threats before they spread to additional systems, exfiltrate data, or destroy backups.
Forensic Evidence Preservation
Improper incident handling destroys forensic evidence needed for insurance claims, law enforcement referrals, and legal proceedings. Our forensic methodology preserves chain of custody from the first moment of engagement, ensuring evidence is admissible and your legal position is protected.
Incident Response Built for Cary’s Business Community
Cary, North Carolina is home to some of the most technology-dependent companies in the Research Triangle. SAS Institute’s campus employs thousands of data scientists and software engineers. Epic Games is transforming the former Cary Towne Center into one of the largest game development campuses in the world. Along Weston Parkway, Regency Park Drive, and the NC-55 corridor, pharmaceutical companies, clinical research organizations, financial advisory firms, and professional services companies operate complex IT environments that store sensitive intellectual property, customer data, and regulated information.
When a cyberattack strikes a Cary business, the consequences extend far beyond IT. A ransomware attack can halt pharmaceutical research timelines. A business email compromise can drain operating accounts. An insider threat can exfiltrate proprietary algorithms or client portfolios. The damage compounds with every hour that passes without expert response — attackers entrench deeper, exfiltrate more data, and destroy more evidence.
Petronella Technology Group, Inc. provides incident response and digital forensics services purpose-built for the Research Triangle. Craig Petronella is a licensed digital forensic examiner who has led investigations for Triangle organizations across healthcare, technology, financial services, and government. Our NIST 800-61 methodology ensures every incident is handled with the rigor that regulators, insurers, and courts expect.
For Cary businesses that do not yet have an incident response plan, we offer retainer-based planning engagements that prepare your organization before an incident occurs. A pre-established relationship with an incident response team dramatically reduces response time and improves outcomes when the inevitable attack happens.
Incident Response Services for Cary Organizations
From initial containment to post-incident hardening, we manage every phase of your response.
Emergency Incident Triage & Containment
When you call our emergency line, our incident commander begins remote triage immediately while deploying field investigators to your Cary location. The first priority is containment — isolating affected systems, blocking attacker command-and-control channels, and preserving forensic evidence. For ransomware events, we assess encryption scope, identify the strain, and determine whether decryption options exist before any recovery decisions are made.
Response capabilities: 24/7 emergency hotline, same-day Cary deployment, remote containment within hours, forensic imaging of affected systems, and coordination with your internal team and legal counsel.
Digital Forensic Investigation
Craig Petronella leads forensic investigations using industry-standard tools and methodology. We create forensic images of affected systems, analyze malware samples, reconstruct attacker timelines, identify initial access vectors, and determine the full scope of compromise. For Cary pharma and biotech companies, we assess whether research data integrity has been compromised. For financial firms, we trace unauthorized transactions and account access.
All forensic work follows chain-of-custody protocols that produce evidence admissible in legal proceedings and acceptable to insurance carriers, regulatory bodies, and law enforcement agencies including the FBI’s Raleigh field office.
Ransomware Response & Recovery
Ransomware is the most common incident type affecting Cary businesses. Our response includes strain identification, encryption scope assessment, backup integrity verification, decryption feasibility analysis, and structured recovery. We rebuild systems from clean media, restore verified backups, and harden the environment against re-infection — all while maintaining forensic evidence for insurance and law enforcement.
We advise against paying ransoms in most cases. Our recovery methodology restores operations from backups whenever possible, and our post-incident hardening ensures the same attack vector cannot be exploited again.
Breach Notification & Regulatory Compliance
Data breaches affecting Cary organizations trigger notification obligations under North Carolina’s Identity Theft Protection Act, HIPAA (for covered entities), and potentially SEC rules (for public companies), state AG notification requirements, and contractual obligations to business partners. We assist with breach determination, scope assessment, notification letter preparation, regulatory filings, and coordination with legal counsel.
For HIPAA-covered Cary healthcare practices, we manage the breach risk assessment to determine whether notification is required, assist with the 60-day notification timeline, and prepare OCR breach reports with supporting forensic documentation.
Business Email Compromise Investigation
Business email compromise is the highest-dollar cybercrime category, and Cary’s concentration of professional services, financial advisory, and real estate firms makes it a frequent target. We investigate compromised email accounts, trace unauthorized access, identify forwarding rules and mailbox delegations set by attackers, assess data exposure, and coordinate with banks to attempt fund recovery for wire fraud events.
Post-investigation, we implement conditional access policies, advanced email security, and security awareness training to prevent recurrence.
Incident Response Retainers & Planning
The best time to engage an incident response team is before you need one. Our retainer program gives Cary businesses a pre-established relationship with guaranteed response times, pre-deployed forensic tools, documented escalation procedures, and periodic tabletop exercises that test your team’s readiness. When an incident occurs, we activate immediately — no contract negotiations, no onboarding delays.
We also develop custom incident response plans aligned with NIST 800-61, HIPAA, and your specific regulatory requirements. Plans include roles and responsibilities, communication templates, evidence preservation procedures, and recovery checklists.
NIST 800-61 Incident Response Framework
A structured, forensically sound approach to every Cary incident engagement.
Detection & Analysis
We analyze indicators of compromise, assess the scope and severity of the incident, identify affected systems and data, and determine the attack vector. This phase produces the intelligence needed to make informed containment decisions for your Cary environment.
Containment & Evidence Preservation
We isolate compromised systems, block attacker access, and create forensic images of affected machines. Containment strategies are tailored to minimize business disruption while ensuring no evidence is lost. For Cary businesses with 24/7 operations, we design containment plans that maintain critical services during the response.
Eradication & Recovery
We eliminate attacker presence from your environment, rebuild compromised systems from clean media, restore data from verified backups, and validate that no persistence mechanisms remain. Recovery is staged and monitored to ensure the attacker cannot re-establish access during the rebuild process.
Post-Incident Review & Hardening
Every engagement concludes with a comprehensive incident report, lessons learned analysis, and security hardening recommendations. We implement the controls needed to prevent recurrence and update your incident response plan based on actual event intelligence. For compliance-driven Cary organizations, we produce documentation that satisfies HIPAA, SOC 2, and regulatory reporting requirements.
Why Cary Organizations Trust Petronella Technology Group, Inc. for Incident Response
Craig Petronella — Licensed Digital Forensic Examiner
Founder & CTO • 30+ Years Forensic Experience • CMMC Certified Registered Practitioner
Craig has led digital forensic investigations for organizations across the Triangle for over three decades. His licensure as a digital forensic examiner ensures forensic evidence is collected, preserved, and analyzed with the rigor that courts, regulators, and insurance carriers demand. He personally leads every incident response engagement for Cary businesses.
Same-Day Cary Deployment
Our Triangle headquarters puts us within 30 minutes of any Cary location — from the SAS Campus to Regency Park to Amberly. When minutes matter during an active incident, our proximity ensures rapid on-site response.
Multi-Industry Expertise
We have responded to incidents across Cary’s key industries — technology, pharma, healthcare, financial services, and professional services. We understand the compliance implications, data sensitivity, and operational urgency specific to each sector.
Insurance & Legal Coordination
We work alongside cyber insurance carriers, breach counsel, and law enforcement throughout the incident lifecycle. Our forensic reports are structured to support insurance claims and legal proceedings, and we coordinate with your existing advisors to ensure a unified response.
Prevention After Response
Incident response is not just recovery — it is the foundation for prevention. Every engagement concludes with hardening recommendations and implementation support so your Cary business emerges from the incident with stronger security than before the attack.
Frequently Asked Questions About Incident Response in Cary
How quickly can you respond to an incident at our Cary office?
Remote triage begins immediately upon contact. Forensic investigators deploy to Cary locations the same day. Retainer clients receive guaranteed response times with pre-deployed tools for the fastest possible engagement.
What types of incidents do you handle?
Ransomware attacks, data breaches, business email compromise, insider threats, advanced persistent threats, malware infections, unauthorized access, and any suspected security incident. We handle the full spectrum of cyberattacks targeting Cary businesses.
Should we contact law enforcement before calling you?
Call us first. We begin containment and evidence preservation immediately, which is critical in the first hours. We then coordinate with the FBI’s Raleigh field office, Cary Police Department, or other agencies as appropriate. Law enforcement involvement does not slow our response — we work in parallel.
Do you work with our cyber insurance carrier?
Yes. We coordinate with your cyber insurance carrier throughout the engagement, producing forensic reports structured to support your claim. We are familiar with the documentation requirements of major carriers and work with breach counsel to ensure all communications are properly privileged.
Can you help with HIPAA breach notification for our Cary practice?
Yes. We conduct the four-factor breach risk assessment, assist with the 60-day notification timeline, prepare individual and media notifications when required, and file breach reports with OCR. Our forensic documentation supports every step of the HIPAA breach reporting process.
What is an incident response retainer?
A retainer establishes a pre-engagement relationship with guaranteed response times, pre-deployed forensic tools, and documented procedures. When an incident occurs, we activate immediately without contract delays. Retainer hours can also be used for proactive services like tabletop exercises and incident response plan development.
Should we pay the ransom if we are hit by ransomware?
We advise against paying ransoms in most situations. Payment funds criminal operations and does not guarantee data recovery. Our recovery methodology restores operations from backups whenever possible. We assess every situation individually and provide recommendations based on backup availability, encryption scope, and business impact.
How do we get started?
For active incidents, call 919-348-4912 immediately — our team begins triage within the hour. For proactive planning, schedule a consultation to discuss retainer options and incident response plan development for your Cary organization.
Cyber Incident in Cary? Call Now.
If your Cary business is experiencing a ransomware attack, data breach, or suspected compromise, call 919-348-4912 immediately. Our forensic investigators deploy the same day. For proactive planning, schedule a consultation to establish an incident response retainer before you need one.
Petronella Technology Group, Inc. • 919-348-4912 • Raleigh, NC 27606 • BBB Accredited Since 2003 • Founded 2002 • 2,500+ Clients