# IR-4 — Incident Handling

- **Control ID:** IR-4
- **Family:** [IR](/md/families/IR.md)
- **Baselines:** low, moderate, high
- **Enhancement of:** No content available.

## Description

Implement an incident handling capability for incidents that is consistent with the incident response plan and includes preparation, detection and analysis, containment, eradication, and recovery; Coordinate incident handling activities with contingency planning activities; Incorporate lessons learned from ongoing incident handling activities into incident response procedures, training, and testing, and implement the resulting changes accordingly; and Ensure the rigor, intensity, scope, and results of incident handling activities are comparable and predictable across the organization.

## Discussion

Organizations recognize that incident response capabilities are dependent on the capabilities of organizational systems and the mission and business processes being supported by those systems. Organizations consider incident response as part of the definition, design, and development of mission and business processes and systems. Incident-related information can be obtained from a variety of sources, including audit monitoring, physical access monitoring, and network monitoring; user or administrator reports; and reported supply chain events. An effective incident handling capability includes coordination among many organizational entities (e.g., mission or business owners, system owners, authorizing officials, human resources offices, physical security offices, personnel security offices, legal departments, risk executive \[function\], operations personnel, procurement offices). Suspected security incidents include the receipt of suspicious email communications that can contain malicious code. Suspected supply chain incidents include the insertion of counterfeit hardware or malicious code into organizational systems or system components. For federal agencies, an incident that involves personally identifiable information is considered a breach. A breach results in unauthorized disclosure, the loss of control, unauthorized acquisition, compromise, or a similar occurrence where a person other than an authorized user accesses or potentially accesses personally identifiable information or an authorized user accesses or potentially accesses such information for other than authorized purposes.

## Implementation guidance

No content available.

## CSF 2.0 subcategories

- [DE.AE-02](/md/csf/DE.AE-02.md) — Potentially adverse events are analyzed to better understand associated activities
- [DE.AE-03](/md/csf/DE.AE-03.md) — Information is correlated from multiple sources
- [DE.AE-06](/md/csf/DE.AE-06.md) — Information on adverse events is provided to authorized staff and tools
- [DE.AE-08](/md/csf/DE.AE-08.md) — DE.AE-08
- [ID.IM-01](/md/csf/ID.IM-01.md) — Improvements are identified from evaluations
- [ID.IM-02](/md/csf/ID.IM-02.md) — ID.IM-02
- [ID.IM-03](/md/csf/ID.IM-03.md) — Improvements are identified from execution of operational processes, procedures, and activities
- [RC.CO-03](/md/csf/RC.CO-03.md) — Recovery activities and progress in restoring operational capabilities are communicated to designated internal and external stakeholders
- [RC.CO-04](/md/csf/RC.CO-04.md) — RC.CO-04
- [RC.RP-01](/md/csf/RC.RP-01.md) — The recovery portion of the incident response plan is executed once initiated from the incident response process
- [RC.RP-02](/md/csf/RC.RP-02.md) — Recovery actions are selected, scoped, prioritized, and performed
- [RC.RP-06](/md/csf/RC.RP-06.md) — The end of incident recovery is declared based on criteria, and incident-related documentation is completed
- [RS.AN-03](/md/csf/RS.AN-03.md) — Analysis is performed to establish what has taken place during an incident and the root cause of the incident
- [RS.AN-06](/md/csf/RS.AN-06.md) — Actions performed during an investigation are recorded, and the records' integrity and provenance are preserved
- [RS.AN-07](/md/csf/RS.AN-07.md) — Incident data and metadata are collected, and their integrity and provenance are preserved
- [RS.AN-08](/md/csf/RS.AN-08.md) — An incident's magnitude is estimated and validated
- [RS.CO-02](/md/csf/RS.CO-02.md) — Internal and external stakeholders are notified of incidents
- [RS.CO-03](/md/csf/RS.CO-03.md) — Information is shared with designated internal and external stakeholders
- [RS.MA-02](/md/csf/RS.MA-02.md) — Incident reports are triaged and validated
- [RS.MA-03](/md/csf/RS.MA-03.md) — Incidents are categorized and prioritized
- [RS.MA-04](/md/csf/RS.MA-04.md) — Incidents are escalated or elevated as needed
- [RS.MA-05](/md/csf/RS.MA-05.md) — The criteria for initiating incident recovery are applied
- [RS.MI-01](/md/csf/RS.MI-01.md) — Incidents are contained
- [RS.MI-02](/md/csf/RS.MI-02.md) — Incidents are eradicated

## Related controls

- [AC-19](/md/controls/AC-19.md)
- [AU-6](/md/controls/AU-6.md)
- [AU-7](/md/controls/AU-7.md)
- [CM-6](/md/controls/CM-6.md)
- [CP-2](/md/controls/CP-2.md)
- [CP-3](/md/controls/CP-3.md)
- [CP-4](/md/controls/CP-4.md)
- [IR-2](/md/controls/IR-2.md)
- [IR-3](/md/controls/IR-3.md)
- [IR-5](/md/controls/IR-5.md)
- [IR-6](/md/controls/IR-6.md)
- [IR-8](/md/controls/IR-8.md)
- [PE-6](/md/controls/PE-6.md)
- [PL-2](/md/controls/PL-2.md)
- [PM-12](/md/controls/PM-12.md)
- [SA-8](/md/controls/SA-8.md)
- [SC-5](/md/controls/SC-5.md)
- [SC-7](/md/controls/SC-7.md)
- [SI-3](/md/controls/SI-3.md)
- [SI-4](/md/controls/SI-4.md)
- [SI-7](/md/controls/SI-7.md)

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Derived from official NIST publications (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 and NIST CSF 2.0). nistcontrols.com is not affiliated with NIST.