According to the CHFI v11 Procedures and Methodology domain, the Incident Response Process Flow follows a structured sequence to ensure incidents are handled efficiently, lawfully, and with minimal impact. Once an incident is detected and stakeholders such as management, third-party vendors, and affected clients are informed , the next immediate priority is containment .

Containment focuses on limiting the scope and impact of the incident to prevent further damage, data loss, or lateral movement by the attacker. This may include isolating affected systems, blocking malicious IP addresses, disabling compromised accounts, segmenting networks, or applying temporary firewall rules. CHFI v11 emphasizes that containment must be executed swiftly to preserve evidence while stopping the ongoing threat.

The other options represent different phases of the incident response lifecycle. Incident triage and incident recording and assignment occur earlier, during detection and initial response. Eradication is a later phase that involves removing malware, closing vulnerabilities, and eliminating attacker persistence—but only after the threat has been successfully contained.

CHFI v11 explicitly states that failing to prioritize containment after notification can allow attackers to continue exploiting systems, leading to greater organizational and legal consequences. Therefore, the correct and CHFI v11–verified immediate priority is Containment , making Option A the correct answer.