As a security leader, you are familiar with the ways in which information is vulnerable to theft, destruction, alteration, and unavailability. But good security is not just a process of reacting to individual threats when they appear or closing holes when they are discovered—it's a process of understanding how your information, by its very nature and the ways in which it is used, is at risk of being compromised. When you understand the risks you face on a foundational level, you can better prepare yourself to reduce or eliminate the chances of a security incident occurring. When an incident does occur, you'll also be better prepared to respond in a way that minimizes the impact the incident has on your information.

Now that you've identified the importance of risk management, you need to prepare for how these risks often manifest—as security incidents affecting your organization. Responding quickly, yet cautiously, to the inevitable can make all the difference in preventing serious, long-term harm to the organization.

Following a cybersecurity incident, the organization may be called upon to perform forensic analysis, such as collecting evidence and determining how and why the incident occurred, and who caused it.

Although you've developed an effective incident response plan at this point, you're not done yet. You must ensure that this plan and its implementation align with any state, federal, or international laws that your organization is subject to. This is a necessary step in keeping the organization out of legal trouble, as well as minimizing other types of risk that result from non-compliance.

You'll wrap things up and then validate what you've learned in this course by taking the credential exam.