Which of the following are key incident prioritization factors? (Choose two)

Effective incident prioritization requires assessing the potential impact on the organization. The sensitivity of the affected data is a primary factor; a breach involving protected health information (PHI) or intellectual property is more severe than one affecting public marketing materials. Secondly, the potential for business disruption is critical. An incident impacting core operational systems, such as a production database or e-commerce platform, demands a more urgent response than an issue on a non-critical development server. These two factors—data sensitivity and business impact—are fundamental to risk assessment and resource allocation in incident response.

C. The number of emails received is a general IT operational metric, not a specific factor for prioritizing a security incident's severity.
D. Employee satisfaction is an HR metric and has no direct bearing on the technical or business impact of a security incident.

1. Palo Alto Networks. (2022). The Unit 42 Incident Response Playbook. This playbook emphasizes prioritizing incidents based on "business impact analysis," which includes factors like the "type and sensitivity of data at risk" and the "criticality of the affected systems to business operations."

2. Palo Alto Networks. (2023). Cortex XSOAR Administrator's Guide. "Incidents". The guide describes how incident severity and prioritization are determined within the platform, often using automated logic based on asset criticality and the nature of the data involved.