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CISM Practice Question: After a ransomware attack, a company discovers…
After a ransomware attack, a company discovers that backups are also encrypted. The incident response team has isolated the affected systems. What should be the next step?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often jump to recovery actions (like reimaging or restoring backups) without first ensuring containment and legal notification, confusing the order of the Incident Response phases.
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
✓
Isolate additional systems and notify law enforcement.
After isolating affected systems, the next priority is to contain the incident by identifying and isolating any additional compromised systems to prevent further spread, and to notify law enforcement as required by legal and regulatory obligations. This aligns with the Incident Response (IR) process, specifically the Containment, Eradication, and Recovery phases, where containment must precede any recovery attempts to avoid re-infection.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Attempt restoration from encrypted backups.
Why it's wrong here
Encrypted backups are unusable without decryption.
- ✗
Pay the ransom to obtain decryption keys.
Why it's wrong here
Paying ransom is discouraged and does not guarantee recovery.
- ✓
Isolate additional systems and notify law enforcement.
Why this is correct
Containment and involving authorities are best practices.
- ✗
Reimage all systems from known clean media.
Why it's wrong here
Reimaging destroys potential evidence before investigation.
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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.