After-action reports provide a detailed review of the event, the effectiveness of the incident response, and identify areas for improvement. They are crucial for learning from both successes and shortcomings in order to enhance future security operations. In contrast, 'Vulnerability scans' are used more for identifying weaknesses before an incident, 'Penetration testing' is for proactive security assessments rather than post-incident analysis, 'Continuous monitoring' is a broad operational strategy not specifically aimed at evaluating a past incident response, and 'Security awareness training' and 'Creating new security policies' are more prescriptive actions rather than evaluative measures of an incident response.