An incident-response process is the defined sequence of actions a security team follows after it detects a suspicious or confirmed security event. It usually includes identification, containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident review. The goal is to limit damage, preserve evidence, restore safe operations, and capture lessons that improve future defense.
In practice, this process matters because fast, coordinated action can reduce the impact of malware, account compromise, data theft, or service disruption. Real attacks often unfold quickly, so teams need clear escalation paths, roles, and decision points before an alert arrives. Strong monitoring helps only when it feeds a working response workflow: analysts triage the signal, responders isolate affected systems, evidence is preserved for investigation, and recovery steps are tracked to completion. A mature incident-response process also supports defenses by turning each event into better detections, playbooks, and controls.