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200-201 Practice Question: A security analyst is reviewing the incident…
A security analyst is reviewing the incident response plan for a small business. The plan states that after an incident is contained, the next step is to preserve evidence. The CISO wants to ensure that the plan follows NIST guidelines. Which step should be added between containment and evidence preservation according to NIST?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the NIST incident response phase order, and the trap here is that candidates confuse 'evidence collection and analysis' with 'evidence preservation' or assume recovery immediately follows containment, when in fact eradication is the mandatory intermediate step.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Eradication
According to NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2, the incident response lifecycle includes Preparation, Detection & Analysis, Containment, Eradication, Recovery, and Post-Incident Activity (Lessons Learned). Eradication (option D) must follow containment to remove artifacts such as malware, backdoors, or compromised accounts before evidence is preserved for legal or forensic purposes. Without eradication, residual threats could tamper with or destroy evidence during collection.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Lessons learned
Why it's wrong here
Lessons learned is the final phase.
- ✗
Recovery
Why it's wrong here
Recovery comes after eradication.
- ✗
Evidence collection and analysis
Why it's wrong here
Evidence collection should occur before containment to avoid tampering.
- ✓
Eradication
Why this is correct
NIST places eradication after containment.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 200-201 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 200-201 exam.