What is the purpose of an incident response plan?

The purpose of an incident response plan is primarily to outline roles and responsibilities during a security incident. This structured approach allows organizations to effectively manage and respond to security breaches, minimizing potential damage and ensuring a coordinated effort among team members. The plan typically includes defined roles for incident response team members, specifying who is responsible for decision-making, communications, technical responses, and recovery processes.

Having such a plan enhances the organization’s ability to respond swiftly and efficiently, facilitating timely actions that can mitigate the impact of an incident. Moreover, clearly delineating roles ensures that all team members understand their specific tasks, which is crucial in high-pressure situations where prompt action is necessary to contain and remediate security breaches.

In contrast, the other choices focus on specific security practices or preventive measures that, while important, do not address the comprehensive framework and coordinated approach required during an incident. For instance, preventing malware infections, creating strong password policies, and configuring network devices are all important aspects of cybersecurity but do not encapsulate the reactive and strategic nature of an incident response plan.