CISA Practice Question: Information Systems Operations and Business Resilience
An IS auditor is reviewing backup procedures for a critical database. Which THREE are key considerations for ensuring backup reliability and recoverability?
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
✓
Ensuring backup retention periods meet the recovery point objective (RPO).
Backup reliability requires regular testing (restore verification), secure offsite storage to protect against site disasters, and retention aligned with business recovery objectives. Encryption is important but not directly for reliability; compression may affect performance but not reliability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Ensuring backup retention periods meet the recovery point objective (RPO).
Why this is correct
Retention must align with RPO to allow recovery to the desired point.
- ✓
Regularly performing restore verification tests.
Why this is correct
Essential to ensure backups can be restored.
- ✗
Encrypting backup data to prevent unauthorized access.
Why it's wrong here
Important for security, but not directly for recoverability.
- ✓
Storing backups at an offsite location.
Why this is correct
Protects against site-level disasters.
- ✗
Compressing backup data to reduce storage costs.
Why it's wrong here
Cost-saving measure, not a reliability/recoverability requirement.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CISA practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISACA 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 CISA exam.