When addressing email incidents, what is the primary focus of the recovery step?

The primary focus of the recovery step in addressing email incidents is to restore normal operations while ensuring that the organization is secure and ready to continue functioning effectively. In this context, changing passwords is critical because it directly addresses potential unauthorized access to accounts that may have been compromised during the incident. By changing passwords, you are taking proactive steps to secure email accounts that may have been exposed and to prevent further unauthorized access, thereby helping to contain the incident and move towards recovery.

The other considerations, while important in the overall incident response process, do not specifically align with the immediate recovery efforts. Detecting the breach is an essential part of the response phase, and preparation for future attacks falls under the lessons learned and mitigation stages post-incident. Eradicating malware is also critical but typically occurs in the containment or remediation phase, prior to the recovery step. After ensuring the system is clean, the recovery step primarily focuses on restoring access and operations securely, which makes changing passwords the vital action in that phase.