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Cyber Incident Response: Triage, Containment & Recovery

Cyber Incident Response: Triage, Containment & Recovery

This course is part of AI-Powered Cybersecurity Specialization

Instructor: Matt Bushby

Included with

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5 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Intermediate level

Recommended experience

1 week to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

5 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Intermediate level

Recommended experience

1 week to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

Design an organisational incident response capability including CSIRT structure, escalation protocols, and crisis communication strategies.
Apply a structured triage and analysis methodology to identify indicators of compromise and escalate incidents accurately and confidently.
Execute containment, eradication, and recovery procedures across a range of cyber attack scenarios while maintaining business continuity.
Construct a post-incident review process that captures root cause analysis and communicates actionable lessons to technical and executive audiences.

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This course is part of the AI-Powered Cybersecurity Specialization

When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.

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Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
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There are 5 modules in this course

When a cyber attack hits, the speed and structure of your response determines everything — how much damage is done, how quickly systems recover, and whether your organisation emerges stronger. Yet structured incident response remains one of the most underdeveloped capabilities in security teams worldwide. This course gives you a complete, operational incident response skillset — from the first alert through to post-incident learning.

You'll begin with preparation: assessing your security landscape, establishing a Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT), and developing crisis communication strategies for staff, leadership, stakeholders, and media. You'll then develop triage and analysis skills — distinguishing real incidents from noise, identifying early indicators of compromise, and analysing logs and alerts to assess the scale and impact of a breach. Moving from analysis to action, you'll apply containment strategies that isolate compromised systems while maintaining business continuity, and eradicate threats including malware and insider attacks. The final stage covers recovery, post-incident documentation, root cause analysis, and presenting lessons learned to executive audiences. Interactive role plays simulate real-world pressure: CSIRT activation, SOC manager briefings, live breach response, and leadership debriefs. Job skills taught: Incident Detection & Classification · CSIRT Management · Incident Triage & Analysis · Threat Containment · System Eradication & Recovery · Post-Incident Documentation · Post-Incident Review · Crisis Communication · SOC Operations · Security Resilience Features Coursera Coach, Dialogues and Role Plays - a smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the course.

Effective cyber response starts with preparation. This module teaches you to proactively equip your organization to act swiftly and confidently when threats emerge. Examine your security landscape, identify vulnerabilities, and assess current defenses. Learn to establish a Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT), defining roles and escalation protocols. Crucially, explore crisis communication strategies for staff, leadership, stakeholders, and media. A strong response involves both technical skill and trust preservation. This module helps you build an organization prepared to respond and recover with speed, structure, and professionalism.

What's included

1 assignment9 plugins

Timely detection and accurate analysis are key to effective cyber response. This module trains you to move from noise to insight, recognizing early indicators of compromise and determining incident scale. You will explore the difference between routine events and potential breaches, sifting through logs, alerts, and user activity for suspicious patterns. Learn incident analysis: what to look for, how to gather and interpret data, and assess potential impact. Develop a structured approach to triaging and escalating incidents with confidence. By the end, you will detect threats early, validate incidents, and analyze them for an effective response.

What's included

1 assignment8 plugins

After detection and analysis, the next critical steps are containment, eradication, and secure system restoration. This module equips you with skills and strategies for decisive action under pressure. Explore techniques for isolating compromised systems to prevent spread, balancing urgency with precision for business continuity. Learn to eradicate threats like malware or insider attacks. The final stage is recovery: safely restoring systems, validating integrity, and implementing safeguards to prevent recurrence. This process aims for smarter, stronger operations. By the end, you will have a practical roadmap to steer your organization through incident aftermath, containing damage, restoring trust, and reducing future risk.

What's included

1 assignment7 plugins

A cyber incident concludes when lessons are captured, analyzed, and used to strengthen the organization. This module focuses on turning response into resilience through continuous improvement in your incident management lifecycle. You will explore documenting the response process, preserving evidence, and communicating insights to technical and executive audiences. Learn to conduct structured post-incident reviews to uncover why incidents happened, how they were handled, and what must change. Understand how to institutionalize lessons to evolve security posture, improve detection and response, and reduce future incident impact. Gain tools to transform setbacks into strategic wins for a stronger, more cyber-resilient organization.

What's included

1 assignment7 plugins

In this module, you will lead a structured incident response from detection through containment and recovery, concluding with a post-incident review and executive briefing. The project allows you to build a comprehensive portfolio artefact demonstrating your end-to-end capabilities.

What's included

2 assignments

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Instructor

Matt Bushby

Macquarie University

18 Courses20,823 learners

Offered by

Macquarie University

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Frequently asked questions

Basic cybersecurity knowledge is recommended — familiarity with concepts such as networks, threats, and security operations will help you get the most from this course. You do not need machine learning experience, as this course focuses on the operational and procedural side of incident response rather than ML modelling.

This course is built around applied, scenario-based learning — including interactive role plays that simulate CSIRT activation, SOC escalation, live breach response, and executive debriefs. It combines operational response skills with crisis communication and post-incident review, giving you a well-rounded capability rather than a purely technical focus.

This course develops the operational skills needed for roles that sit at the heart of an organisation's cyber defence capability. It is directly relevant to Incident Response Analyst, SOC Analyst, and Cyber Security Analyst roles, where structured detection, triage, and response are daily responsibilities. CSIRT Managers and Security Operations Managers will benefit from the team coordination, escalation protocol, and crisis communication content. IT Engineers and System Administrators involved in containment and recovery will gain a structured framework for decisive action under pressure. The post-incident review and executive communication skills are particularly valuable for Security Managers and professionals moving into Security Leadership roles.

This is the third course in the Specialization. It builds on the threat detection and adversarial AI knowledge from the first two courses, bringing everything together in an operational context. You'll apply what you know about how threats are detected and how AI systems can be compromised to execute real-world incident response with greater insight and confidence.

To access the course materials, assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience when you enroll in a course. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid. The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.