ISC2 CC Business Continuity, DR & Incident Response — 10 Questions

Question 1

An organization's recovery time objective (RTO) for its customer database is 4 hours. During a disaster, the backup restore process takes 2 hours, but reconfigure and test tasks add another 3 hours. Which action best addresses this gap?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Automate the configuration and validation steps after restore.. The RTO is 4 hours, but the actual recovery time is 2 hours (restore) + 3 hours (reconfigure and test) = 5 hours, exceeding the RTO by 1 hour. Automating the configuration and validation steps (option D) reduces the post-restore manual effort, bringing the total recovery time closer to or within the 4-hour RTO. This directly addresses the gap without altering the RTO or neglecting testing.

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Conduct the restore test only during annual disaster recovery drills.

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Reduce the recovery point objective (RPO) to minimize data loss.

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Increase the RTO to 6 hours.

Question 2

A SOC analyst receives an alert indicating a user executed a PowerShell script that initiated outbound connections to an external IP. The script was delivered via email attachment. Which incident response phase is MOST appropriate for containing this threat?

Accepted Answer

Eradication phase. When an alert is received, identification has already occurred. The next step is to contain the threat, which is typically part of the eradication phase in the ISC2 CC framework. Containment activities such as isolating the system and blocking connections are performed during the eradication phase. Therefore, option B (Eradication phase) is the most appropriate for containing the threat.

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Identification phase

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Recovery phase

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Preparation phase

Question 3

After a security incident has been contained and eradicated, which of the following should be done to improve future incident response?

Accepted Answer

Conduct a post-incident review. A post-incident review (also called a lessons-learned meeting) is the correct next step after containment and eradication because it systematically analyzes what went wrong, what worked, and what can be improved in the incident response plan. This review directly feeds into updating playbooks, refining detection rules, and adjusting security controls to prevent recurrence. Without this step, the organization misses the opportunity to close the loop on the incident lifecycle and may repeat the same mistakes.

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Reinstall the operating system

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Disable the affected user accounts

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Delete all incident-related logs

Question 4

In a cloud environment, the security team discovers that a misconfigured cloud storage bucket has made customer data publicly accessible. After securing the bucket, what is the most important next step?

Accepted Answer

Notify affected customers. After securing a misconfigured cloud storage bucket that exposed customer data, the most important next step is to notify affected customers. This aligns with incident response best practices and regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) that mandate timely disclosure of data breaches to impacted individuals. Without notification, the organization may face legal penalties and loss of trust, even if the data is now secure.

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Delete the data

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Review logs to determine access

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Change the storage bucket policy

Question 5

During a ransomware incident, the incident response team isolates affected systems. Which of the following is the NEXT best step?

Accepted Answer

Preserve forensic evidence from the isolated systems.. After isolating affected systems during a ransomware incident, the next best step is to preserve forensic evidence from those systems. This ensures that data such as memory dumps, logs, and encrypted files are captured intact for analysis, which is critical for understanding the attack vector, identifying the ransomware variant, and potentially recovering data without paying the ransom. Forensic preservation must occur before any remediation steps like wiping or rebuilding, as those actions would destroy the evidence needed for investigation and legal proceedings.

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Wipe and rebuild all affected systems.

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Notify law enforcement immediately.

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Pay the ransom to restore operations quickly.

Question 6

A company's business continuity plan includes an alternate work site with full IT capabilities. Which type of recovery site does this describe?

Accepted Answer

Hot site. A hot site is a fully equipped alternate work site with all necessary IT infrastructure—servers, networking, telecommunications, and power—ready to take over operations immediately. The question specifies 'full IT capabilities,' which aligns with the hot site's purpose of enabling rapid failover with minimal downtime, typically within hours.

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Mobile site

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Cold site

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Warm site

Question 7

An organization uses a primary data center and a backup site 500 miles away. The backup site replicates data synchronously. Which risk is MOST likely introduced by this configuration?

Accepted Answer

Increased latency for write operations. Synchronous replication requires the primary site to wait for an acknowledgment from the backup site before completing each write operation. The 500-mile distance introduces a minimum round-trip latency of approximately 8-10 ms (based on fiber optic propagation at ~200 km/ms), which directly increases the time taken for write operations. This latency impact is the most likely risk introduced by this configuration.

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High recovery point objective (RPO)

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Data encryption overhead

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Insufficient bandwidth between sites

Question 8

Which TWO actions are appropriate during the identification phase of incident response?

Accepted Answer

Correlate alerts from multiple sources.. During the identification phase of incident response, the goal is to detect and confirm that an incident is occurring. Correlating alerts from multiple sources (e.g., IDS/IPS logs, firewall logs, and endpoint detection) helps reduce false positives and provides a clearer picture of the attack chain. Reviewing system logs for anomalies is a core detection technique that can reveal indicators of compromise (IoCs) such as unusual process execution or failed login bursts.

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Conduct a post-mortem analysis.

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Restore data from backups.

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Disconnect affected systems from the network.

Question 9

Which THREE elements are essential components of a business continuity plan (BCP)?

Accepted Answer

Data backup schedules and procedures. Data backup schedules and procedures are essential because they ensure that critical data can be restored after a disruption. A BCP must specify the frequency of backups (e.g., daily incremental, weekly full), the retention policy, and the recovery point objective (RPO) to meet business requirements. Without defined schedules and procedures, data loss or corruption could render the recovery process ineffective.

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Incident response team roster

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Detailed network topology diagrams

Question 10

Based on the incident log, at which step did the incident response team contain the threat?

Accepted Answer

14:25 - Isolated WKS-045 from network. Containment is the immediate step to prevent the threat from spreading, and isolating WKS-045 from the network at 14:25 achieves this by cutting off its network connectivity. This aligns with the NIST SP 800-61 incident response lifecycle, where containment is prioritized before eradication or recovery. The log shows isolation occurred before scanning or removal, making it the correct containment action.

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14:30 - Scanned system, detected Trojan.Downloader

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14:45 - Removed malware via AV

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14:35 - Escalated to incident handler