Which of the following should be the FIRST step in the incident response process for a suspected breach?

Engaging a third party is typically done after initial identification and assessment, especially for complex or confirmed incidents, not as the very first step when an alert is first received.

Notifying business management is part of the communication plan, which follows the identification and initial assessment of a confirmed incident, not the validation of the initial alert.

Informing potentially affected customers is a late-stage step in the incident response process, typically after containment, eradication, recovery, and legal notification requirements have been determined.

The incident response process begins with the 'Identification' phase, where the primary objective is to determine if an actual security incident has occurred and assess its nature and scope. Researching the validity of the alerted breach prevents the allocation of resources to false positives and ensures subsequent, resource-intensive steps are taken only for confirmed incidents.