CISA Practice Question: Information Systems Operations and Business Resilience
An organization's IT service desk is the single point of contact for all incidents. The SLA for resolving P2 incidents is 8 hours. The auditor finds that the service desk frequently reassigns P2 incidents to second-level support without updating the incident record, causing delays in resolution. The average resolution time for P2 incidents is 10 hours. What is the primary control weakness?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates may focus on the symptom (delays) and choose a seemingly logical cause like inadequate training or insufficient staff, rather than recognizing that the root cause is the lack of automated controls to enforce proper incident tracking and escalation procedures.
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
✓
Lack of automated escalation and tracking for incident reassignments.
The primary control weakness is the lack of automated escalation and tracking for incident reassignments. Without automated mechanisms (e.g., workflow triggers, timestamped reassignment logs, or integration with IT service management tools), the service desk can reassign P2 incidents to second-level support without updating the incident record, leading to untracked delays. This directly violates the SLA of 8 hours, as the average resolution time of 10 hours indicates that incidents are not being monitored or escalated properly, causing them to exceed the target.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Inadequate training of service desk staff.
Why it's wrong here
While training may help, the process itself is weak.
- ✗
SLA targets are too aggressive for P2 incidents.
Why it's wrong here
The SLA is being missed due to process issues, not because it's unrealistic.
- ✗
Insufficient number of second-level support staff.
Why it's wrong here
The issue is tracking, not staffing.
- ✓
Lack of automated escalation and tracking for incident reassignments.
Why this is correct
Automation would ensure updates and track SLA compliance.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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