DataTel

Federal Compliance Guide

Are You Prepared for the 72-Hour Incident Reporting Clock?

CIRCIA requires covered critical infrastructure entities to report substantial cyber incidents to CISA within 72 hours and ransomware payments within 24. Most organizations don't know if they're covered, much less whether their workflow can hit the deadline.

Start Free Readiness Check
  • 10 minutes
  • Coverage + readiness
  • Priority actions
CIRCIA REPORTING TIMELINE0h24h48h72hDetection“Reasonable belief”CLOCK STARTSPayment ReportIf ransom paid24 HOUR WINDOWIncident ReportCISA IRF submitted72 HOUR DEADLINECovered entities must report substantial cyber incidents to CISA within 72 hours.Ransomware payments must be reported within 24 hours.

The clock starts at the moment of reasonable belief — not when forensics confirms it. Most organizations underestimate how fast that is.

0 hrs

Window to file the CISA Incident Reporting Form

0 hrs

Window to report a ransomware payment

0 sectors

Critical infrastructure sectors potentially covered

What the Assessment Covers

Four parts, all scored against the actual CIRCIA reporting workflow. The output is your readiness tier and a prioritized action list.

Coverage Quick Test

  • Sector-specific trigger questions
  • Validation prompts for legal review
  • Verdict: covered, likely, unclear, or not covered

Readiness Score (0–100)

  • 10 operational capabilities scored
  • Clock-start governance & evidence readiness
  • Submission and OT reporting readiness

Reporting Failure Impact

  • Downtime hours × hourly loss
  • External IR, legal, and comms cost inputs
  • Configurable reporting failure multiplier

Filing Workflow

  • 72-hour timeline annotated to your gaps
  • IRF field-ownership mapping
  • One-click jump to the official CISA IRF

Key insight

The hard part of CIRCIA is not the form — it's deciding when the clock started. 'Reasonable belief' is a legal threshold, not a technical one, and a defensible position requires written governance for who can declare an incident, what evidence is required, and how the decision is logged in real time.

How it works

From coverage check to filing-ready in 10 minutes

1

Coverage test

Sector triggers tailored to you

2

Score readiness

10 capability questions

3

Quantify exposure

Reporting-failure cost calculator

4

Priority actions

Owners, timelines, IRF mapping

Run the Free CIRCIA Readiness Check

Find out if you're a covered entity and whether your team can hit the 72-hour deadline today.

Start CIRCIA Readiness Assessment

Frequently Asked Questions