Which step is critical before initiating incident recovery?

Verifying the incident is a critical step before initiating incident recovery because it ensures that the team understands the nature and scope of the incident. This verification involves confirming that an incident has occurred and assessing its impact. By establishing the authenticity of the incident, the incident response team can formulate a targeted recovery strategy that addresses the specific issues at hand.

If verification does not occur before recovery efforts begin, resources may be misallocated, and the root cause of the incident may go unaddressed, potentially leading to recurring issues. Additionally, a confirmed incident can help in communicating effectively with stakeholders and in aligning the response efforts with organizational policies.

The other steps, while important in the overall incident response process, typically follow after the verification has been completed. System validation ensures that systems can operate properly post-incident, collecting evidence is crucial for forensic analysis and understanding the incident, and incident reporting is essential for documentation and compliance. However, each of these actions relies on the foundational step of having verified the incident first, thus emphasizing the importance of verification in the incident recovery process.