What is Incident Response?

Incident response is the structured approach organizations use to handle and manage the aftermath of a security breach or cyberattack. The primary goal is to manage the situation in a way that limits damage, reduces recovery time and costs, and mitigates exploited vulnerabilities. An effective incident response plan enables organizations to:

Quickly identify and contain security breaches
Minimize financial and reputational damage
Preserve evidence for investigation and potential legal action
Learn from incidents to prevent future occurrences
Maintain business continuity during crisis situations

The incident response process typically follows six key phases, as defined by the NIST Computer Security Incident Handling Guide:

Preparation: Establishing and training an incident response team, acquiring necessary tools, and creating incident response policies
Identification: Detecting and determining whether an incident has occurred
Containment: Limiting the scope and impact of the incident
Eradication: Removing the threat from the environment
Recovery: Restoring systems to normal operations
Lessons Learned: Reviewing and documenting the incident for future improvement