CISA Practice Question: Information Systems Operations and Business Resilience
An organization has defined an RTO of 4 hours for its critical financial system. During a disaster recovery test, the system was recovered in 3.5 hours, but data loss was 30 minutes. Which metric is most directly addressed by the recovery time?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse RTO with RPO: candidates see 'data loss was 30 minutes' and incorrectly assume the recovery time metric is RPO, but the question explicitly asks which metric is 'most directly addressed by the recovery time,' which is RTO.
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
✓
RTO
The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) defines the maximum acceptable downtime for a system after a disaster. Since the organization's RTO is 4 hours and the system was recovered in 3.5 hours, the recovery time directly satisfies the RTO metric. The 30 minutes of data loss is irrelevant to RTO; it pertains to the Recovery Point Objective (RPO).
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
RPO
Why it's wrong here
RPO relates to data loss, not recovery time.
- ✗
MTBF
Why it's wrong here
MTBF measures average time between failures, not recovery.
- ✓
RTO
Why this is correct
RTO is the target time for recovery, directly addressed by the recovery time.
- ✗
MTTR
Why it's wrong here
MTTR is mean time to repair, not a target like RTO.
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JA
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.