A longtime incident‑response practitioner laid out a playbook for higher‑education institutions to follow the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) incident‑response lifecycle, urging campuses to formalize detection, containment, eradication and recovery processes tailored to academic environments. The guidance stresses cross‑functional playbooks, tabletop exercises, digital forensics readiness and communication plans that balance transparency with legal risk. It also recommends specialized training for campus IT and closer collaboration between IT, legal counsel and institutional leadership. Universities—managing open networks, third‑party research partners and sensitive student data—face unique attack surfaces; adopting a structured NIST approach can reduce downtime, protect research, and preserve public trust when breaches occur.