3 Pathways to a Certified Incident Responder Career

Earning a credential and becoming a certified incident responder can help you learn the skills you need to start a new career, advance your existing incident response career, or validate your experiences with an industry-recognized certification. Earning a certification may help you earn a higher salary as well. The average salary for an incident handler is $37,374, while the average salary for a certified incident handler is $40,046 [1, 2].

Explore three pathways for becoming a certified incident responder, exam requirements, exam costs, and how to prepare for your certification exam. 

What is a certified incident responder?

A certified incident responder is a professional who earns a credential in cybersecurity incident response and helps their company plan proactively against cyberattacks. In this role, you may develop the policies and procedures your team will implement when an attack or data breach occurs. Preventing these attacks and acting quickly can help your company reduce the risks of a cyberattack, avoiding financial loss and downtime as well as maintaining your reputation as a brand that users can trust. Earning a certification that demonstrates your skill level can help you attract the attention of potential employers. 

3 options for incident response certification

You may earn your incident response certification from organizations offering credentials that follow cybersecurity industry standards and best practices, like the EC-Council, GIAC, or CompTIA. You may be able to start working in the incident response field without a certification if you’ve earned a degree or gained practical experience. Three of the certifications you can choose from include the EC-Council Certified Incident Handler, the GIAC Certified Incident Handler, and the CompTIA+ Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+).

EC-Council Certified Incident Handler (ECIH)

The EC-Council is a member organization offering several globally recognized certifications for information technology professionals. You will want to have some experience in information security or take the official training program from the EC-Council. 

Requirements: You can qualify for the ECIH in two different ways: either by successfully completing an official training program or by submitting an application certifying that you have at least one year of experience in information security, along with a $100 application fee [3]. 

Exam cost: The ECIH price may vary depending on which test center you use for your exam. You can find it on the EC-Council Exam Center for $450 [4].

Who should take this exam? This certification is appropriate for professionals working in fields such as risk assessment, penetration testing, cyber forensics, system administration, network management, and other IT areas. 

What’s on the exam? The Certified Incident Handler exam covers nine topics: the process of handling and responding to incidents, the first actions you should take in the event of a cyberattack, how to manage malware, email security protocols, application-level incidents, cloud security threats, insider threats, network incidents, and endpoint security incidents.

How to prepare for the ECIH: To prepare for the ECIH, you will first want to decide if you’d like to enroll in official training through the EC-Council. This may be a better option if you do not currently have experience in information security. If you do have at least a year of experience, you might decide to take the exam without first completing the official training. In this case, it may be beneficial to brush up on the concepts featured on the exam with a credential like the Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate on Coursera. 

GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH)

The founders of GIAC aimed to create an organization that would validate the skills of professionals working with computer information technology and software security. Their goal was to produce a certification that set industry standards. The organization offers over 40 certifications for cybersecurity professionals as well as a unique system of stacking credentials toward a Portfolio Certification. You can become a GIAC Security Professional (GSP) by earning three Practitioner certifications and two Applied Knowledge certifications. Then you can go on to become a GIAC Security Expert (GSE) by earning six Practitioner certifications and four Applied Knowledge certifications. 

Requirements: You will not have to fulfill any requirements to take the GCIH exam, but you will need to have mastery of the topics featured on the exam through experience, formal courses, or self-study programs in order to successfully pass. 

Exam cost: $999 [5]

Who should take this exam? The GCIH is a certification for professionals currently working in or preparing for a career in incident response, such as incident handlers, or for other IT professionals who may be responsible for responding to cyber threats, such as system administrators and security architects. 

What’s on the exam? This certification covers a range of topics, such as detecting suspicious events like exploitation techniques and methods of covert communication, understanding how to protect against different threats such as endpoint and password attacks, and learning methods to investigate cyber threats.

How to prepare for the GCIH: You can explore training options available from GIAC as well as practice tests to help you gauge your readiness before you take the exam. GIAC recommends that you prepare beyond just a practice test and use additional study preparation methods as well. One way to gain skills and review your knowledge of incident response is to enroll in a Specialization like the Certified in Cybersecurity Specialization by ISC2, which can help you develop skills in risk management, network security, and leadership.

CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+)

GTIA, formerly known as CompTIA Community, is an organization for IT professionals that offers 18 certifications to validate tech skills, such as working with networks and servers, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and more. The Global Technology Industry Association (GTIA), is a membership organization offering networking events, tools for small businesses and start-ups, and industry research.

Requirements: To qualify for the CySA+ exam, you will need a minimum of four years of experience working in a cybersecurity field responding to or managing incidents. You will also need to either earn CompTIA’s other Network+ and Security+ certifications or have knowledge equivalent to these. 

Exam cost: $404 [6]

Who should take this exam? The CySA+ is appropriate for those who would like to work as incident response analysts, cybersecurity analysts, security architects, or other security professionals. 

What’s on the exam? The CySA+ covers topics in areas of incident response, including security operations like identifying threats, how to assess vulnerabilities and build stronger systems, the life cycle of managing and responding to security incidents, and best practices for communicating cybersecurity information to the rest of your team. 

How to prepare for the CompTIA CySA+ exam: You will likely learn many of the skills you need to successfully pass the CySA+ exam during four years of professional experience and in completing the certifications CompTIA recommends. You can review the skills you’ve learned in your career with Cybersecurity Assessment: CompTIA Security+ & CYSA+, a course offered by IBM as part of the IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate. This course can help you get ready for the CompTIA Security+ and CompTIA CySA+ exams with study tips and rigorous exam-day preparation techniques. 

Prepare to become a certified incident responder on Coursera

Becoming a certified incident responder by earning a credential such as the CySA+, GCIH, or the ECIH can help you review and validate your skills in responding to and managing cyber incidents. 

You can start preparing for certification or learn the job-ready skills you need to qualify for an entry-level position as a cybersecurity analyst in just four to six months with the IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate. In this 14-course series, you can learn cybersecurity fundamentals, including how to manage database vulnerabilities, how to use cybersecurity tools and techniques to perform penetration testing, and how to respond to incidents, conduct forensics, and use generative AI to boost your productivity and effectiveness as a cybersecurity analyst. 

Or you may consider the ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity Specialization to demonstrate that you have foundational knowledge of industry terminology, network security, security operations, and policies and procedures.