CISM Information Security Governance Practice Question
A CISO is building a business case for a new security tool. Which TWO metrics would BEST justify the investment to senior leadership?
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
✓
Compliance cost avoidance
Senior leadership cares about financial impact. Breach cost avoidance and compliance cost avoidance directly demonstrate value by reducing potential losses.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Compliance cost avoidance
Why this is correct
Shows how the tool reduces costs related to regulatory compliance (e.g., fines, audits).
- ✓
Breach cost avoidance
Why this is correct
Quantifies the potential financial loss prevented by the tool.
- ✗
Mean time to respond (MTTR) improvements
Why it's wrong here
Operational efficiency metric, not directly tied to financial justification.
- ✗
Phishing simulation click rate
Why it's wrong here
Awareness metric, not directly a financial justification for a tool.
- ✗
Number of vulnerabilities discovered
Why it's wrong here
This is a technical metric; leadership prefers financial or risk-based metrics.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CISM 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 CISM exam.