Which of the following is a goal of incident response?

The goal of incident response is primarily focused on safeguarding the organization from future incidents, which is why protecting the organization from future incidents is the correct answer. Incident response is a structured approach to managing and addressing security breaches or cyber threats. It involves preparing for incidents, detecting vulnerabilities, responding effectively, and learning from those experiences to improve the overall security posture of the organization.

By emphasizing future protection, incident response teams can identify the root causes of security incidents, assess weaknesses in current security protocols, and implement measures to prevent similar events. This proactive stance is crucial for resilience against evolving threats and enhances the organization’s ability to recover quickly from incidents while minimizing damage.

In contrast, identifying goals such as maximizing system downtime, collecting user data for marketing purposes, or creating more vulnerabilities contradict the fundamental purpose of incident response. Downtime typically leads to business losses and decreased productivity, user data collection in this context does not align with incident response priorities, and increasing vulnerabilities would only worsen an organization’s security posture. Thus, focusing on future protection is essential for effective incident management.