CISM Information Security Programme Practice Question
A CISO is presenting security metrics to the board. Which of the following metrics would be MOST relevant for a one-page executive dashboard?
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
✓
Breach count and associated financial impact
Executives need high-level summary metrics. Breach count is a lagging indicator that directly communicates security effectiveness to the board.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Breach count and associated financial impact
Why this is correct
Directly relates to business risk and is easy to understand.
- ✗
Mean time to detect (MTTD) for incidents
Why it's wrong here
Important but more operational; breaches count is more impactful.
- ✗
Number of firewall rule changes per month
Why it's wrong here
Too operational for board-level discussion.
- ✗
Percentage of employees who completed training
Why it's wrong here
A leading indicator but less impactful than breach data.
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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.