In this context, events include any occurance that has significance for system hardware or software, and an incident is an event that must be dealt with to ensure that a system can continue to function.

Most often, an incident is an interruption of an IT service, such as a login failure, due to a problem like a corrupted database table. The incidents that receive the most attention tend to be security-related events, such as data breaches.

IT incident reporting is an essential component of incident management, the area of IT Service Management (ITSM) involved with ensuring that service is returned to normal as quickly as possible in the wake of an incident to minimize any negative impact on the business.

Incident reports vary from one organization to another and among the types of systems involved.