Before we dive into the step-by-step of incident response, let’s get one thing straight:
Not every little glitch or ping deserves to be treated like the system is on fire.

☝️ Event vs. Incident — What’s the Difference?

Think of it this way:

• If I knock on my desk, that’s an event.
• If I knock over my coffee onto my laptop, now we’re talking incident.

In cybersecurity terms:

• Events are just observable activities — logs being written, users logging in, background tasks running.
• Most events? We don’t lose sleep over them.

But when something happens that actually impacts the business — think system outage, data breach, malware infection —
that’s when it crosses the line and becomes an incident.

Real-Life Analogy:

Imagine you’re home on a quiet evening.

• You hear a car drive by — that’s just an event.
• You hear glass breaking in your living room — that’s an incident.

Not everything deserves a SWAT team response — but the things that do, better be handled quickly and correctly.