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CISA Incident Response Plan Practice Question
Which TWO of the following are key elements of an effective incident response plan? (Select exactly 2.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often mistake post-incident activities (like reviews) or asset inventories as key elements of an incident response plan, when the core focus is on real-time response actions: escalation and communication.
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
✓
A clear escalation path with contact information
A clear escalation path (C) ensures incidents are reported to the right stakeholders for timely decision-making, while predefined communication templates (E) enable rapid and consistent notifications to internal and external parties. These are directly used during incident response. Post-incident reviews (A) are important but not a key element of the plan itself; software licenses (B) and hardware serial numbers (D) are asset management details, not incident response essentials.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
A schedule for post-incident reviews
Why it's wrong here
Post-incident reviews are important but part of the improvement phase, not the plan itself.
- ✗
A detailed inventory of software licenses
Why it's wrong here
License inventory is not relevant to incident response.
- ✓
A clear escalation path with contact information
Why this is correct
Escalation ensures that incidents are routed to the appropriate response teams.
- ✗
A list of all hardware serial numbers
Why it's wrong here
Serial numbers are asset management, not incident response.
- ✓
Predefined communication templates for internal and external stakeholders
Why this is correct
Templates ensure timely and consistent communication during an incident.
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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.