Question 127 of 144
SK0-005 security-disaster-recovery Practice Question
A mid-sized manufacturing company operates a primary data center with all critical servers. They have a warm standby site located 100 miles away. For databases, the primary SAN uses synchronous replication to the standby SAN; no tape backups are taken for databases. File and application servers are backed up to an on-premises tape library using nightly incrementals with a weekly full backup every Sunday. Tapes are shipped off-site every Monday morning. On Tuesday morning, a ransomware attack encrypts the entire primary SAN. Because of the real-time replication, the standby SAN is encrypted almost instantly. The on-site tape library is also connected to the network and its tapes, including Sunday's full and Monday's incremental, are encrypted by the attack. The most recent off-site shipment was the previous Monday (eleven days ago), meaning the off-site tapes contain a full backup from eleven days ago and daily incrementals up to that point. The company's RPO is 1 hour for databases and 24 hours for file servers; RTO is 8 hours. The IT director must decide the best immediate course of action to restore operations while adhering to the DR plan as closely as possible.
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
✓
Restore all systems from the 11-day-old off-site tapes, accepting the loss of data generated during the last 11 days.
Option D is correct because the off-site tapes are the only clean, unaffected backups available. Restoring from them is the only way to avoid paying the ransom and to ensure data integrity, even though it means losing 11 days of data. Option A is wrong because paying the ransom does not guarantee data recovery, encourages further crime, and may not meet compliance requirements. Option B is wrong because the replicated SAN data is already encrypted and likely unrecoverable without the decryption key. Option C is wrong because rebuilding databases from scratch is unnecessary when the off-site tapes include database backups (from the full/incremental set) and would result in far greater data loss.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Rebuild all database servers from scratch and restore file servers from the most recent off-site tapes, accepting 11 days of data loss for file servers too.
Why it's wrong here
This ignores the off-site tapes that contain database backups from 11 days ago. Rebuilding from scratch causes unnecessary additional downtime and data loss when backups are available.
- ✗
Attempt to restore the databases from the replicated SAN by breaking replication and scanning for uncorrupted blocks.
Why it's wrong here
The synchronous replication caused the standby SAN to be encrypted simultaneously, so the data is already compromised. Unless a known clean snapshot exists, this data is unusable.
- ✗
Pay the ransom demand to the attackers in hopes of receiving the decryption key.
Why it's wrong here
Paying ransom does not guarantee recovery, may fund criminal activity, and often violates organizational policy or regulatory requirements. It should not be the first course of action.
- ✓
Restore all systems from the 11-day-old off-site tapes, accepting the loss of data generated during the last 11 days.
Why this is correct
The off-site tapes represent the only known clean copy of data. Restoring from them ensures integrity, avoids ransom, and gets operations back online within the RTO, though the RPO is significantly missed—a trade-off given the circumstances.
Visual reference
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Last reviewed: Jul 26, 2026
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