This CS0-003 practice question tests your understanding of incident response and management. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company has been notified by a partner that sensitive data from their shared database was leaked. The CSIRT has been activated. Who should be notified FIRST according to the incident response plan?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "first"
Why it matters: Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
The legal department.
Why wrong: Legal is notified after the incident is confirmed and assessed.
The incident response team.
The IR team is the first point of contact to begin the response process.
The affected partner.
Why wrong: External parties are notified only after internal response is underway.
The CEO.
Why wrong: Executive notification typically occurs after initial assessment.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
The incident response team.
According to standard incident response frameworks (NIST SP 800-61, SANS PICERL), the incident response team (CSIRT) must be notified first because they are the trained responders who will contain, analyze, and coordinate the response. In this scenario, the CSIRT has already been activated, but the question asks who should be notified first per the plan—the IR team is the initial point of contact to ensure proper triage and evidence preservation before any external communication occurs.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
The legal department.
Why it's wrong here
Legal is notified after the incident is confirmed and assessed.
The incident response team.
Why this is correct
The IR team is the first point of contact to begin the response process.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "first" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
The affected partner.
Why it's wrong here
External parties are notified only after internal response is underway.
The CEO.
Why it's wrong here
Executive notification typically occurs after initial assessment.
Common exam traps
CompTIA often tests the misconception that external stakeholders (partners, legal, or executives) should be notified immediately, when in fact the IR team must be the first notified to maintain chain of custody and prevent evidence spoliation.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, incident response plans typically follow a notification chain defined in the IR policy: first responders (CSIRT/IR team) are alerted via a dedicated ticketing system or on-call rotation (e.g., PagerDuty, ServiceNow IRM). The IR team then performs initial triage using tools like Wireshark for packet capture or Volatility for memory analysis to confirm the leak before any external notifications occur. In real-world breaches, premature notification to partners or executives has led to legal liability and loss of forensic evidence due to system changes made before containment.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A SOC analyst notices unusual lateral movement in the network at 2 AM. The IR playbook dictates: identify and contain (isolate the affected machine), then eradicate (remove the malware), then recover (restore from backup), then document. Skipping containment before eradication risks the attacker regaining access. Questions like this test the sequence and rationale of incident response phases.
What to study next
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FAQ
Incident Response and Management — This question tests Incident Response and Management — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: The incident response team. — According to standard incident response frameworks (NIST SP 800-61, SANS PICERL), the incident response team (CSIRT) must be notified first because they are the trained responders who will contain, analyze, and coordinate the response. In this scenario, the CSIRT has already been activated, but the question asks who should be notified first per the plan—the IR team is the initial point of contact to ensure proper triage and evidence preservation before any external communication occurs.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Yes — watch for: "first". Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 30, 2026
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