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CISA Practice Question: Is evaluating its business continuity plan (BCP)…
An organization is evaluating its business continuity plan (BCP) for a critical application with a recovery time objective (RTO) of 4 hours and a recovery point objective (RPO) of 1 hour. The current backup strategy involves daily full backups and hourly transaction log backups. Which of the following is the MOST significant risk?
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
✓
The backup media is stored in the same building as the primary system
Storing backup media in the same building as the primary system creates a single point of failure. A disaster that destroys the primary site would also destroy the backups, making recovery impossible and violating both the RTO and RPO. In contrast, options B, C, and D represent operational gaps that can be addressed through process improvements, but none pose as fundamental a threat to the recoverability of the application as the lack of off-site storage.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The backup media is stored in the same building as the primary system
Why this is correct
If the building is destroyed, both primary and backup data are lost, violating basic business continuity principles.
- ✗
The recovery process requires manual intervention to apply logs
Why it's wrong here
Manual steps may increase recovery time but can be addressed; lack of off-site backups is catastrophic.
- ✗
The backups are not tested regularly
Why it's wrong here
Testing is important but the primary risk is the physical security of the backup data.
- ✗
The hourly logs cover only the last 24 hours
Why it's wrong here
This may be acceptable if RPO is 1 hour; logs older than a day are not needed for RPO.
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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.