Incident Response and Data Resilience

This unit develops practical skills for protecting, recovering, and managing data and systems after compromise, while addressing human, supply-chain, and regulatory risk factors. Students will learn backup and restore methods, incident response steps, privacy and device security practices, and how to evaluate controls (including zero trust and authentication) to sustain business continuity.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze threats and risk vectors (including insiders, supply-chain hardware, mobile devices, social engineering, and malware) to prioritize protective and response measures for small- to medium-sized organizations
• Apply backup and recovery strategies — including full, incremental, and application-level backups, cryptocurrency key backups, and restoration testing — to validate data resilience and shorten recovery time objectives
• Demonstrate incident response and remediation procedures such as isolating compromised assets, reinstalling damaged software, changing credentials, coordinating with third parties, and documenting actions to meet regulatory and continuity requirements
• Evaluate and recommend layered security controls (physical security, zero-trust principles, proper authentication, secure travel connectivity, Tor use where appropriate, and cyber insurance) and user-focused practices (social media hygiene, password handling, and identifying fake connections) to reduce likelihood and impact of breaches