During an incident response, what should be prioritized?

In an incident response situation, the primary focus is on containing the threat to minimize damage. This is crucial because the immediate goal is to stop the incident from escalating and to prevent further harm to systems, data, and the overall organization. By prioritizing containment, incident response teams can mitigate the impact of the incident, protect sensitive information, and maintain the integrity of critical systems.

Once containment is accomplished, additional steps such as analyzing the incident and communicating with stakeholders can occur; however, these actions must come after the threat has been contained. Failing to prioritize containment could lead to a broader compromise of systems, loss of data, or additional threats emerging, ultimately jeopardizing the organization’s security posture and recovery efforts.