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CISM Practice Question: Experiences a DDoS attack that overwhelms their…
An organization experiences a DDoS attack that overwhelms their internet connection. Which containment strategy would be MOST effective?
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
✓
Contact the ISP for traffic scrubbing or blackhole routing.
ISPs can perform traffic scrubbing to filter out malicious traffic while allowing legitimate traffic, thus mitigating the DDoS attack without completely cutting off connectivity. Option A (shutting down all external connectivity) would stop all traffic, including legitimate, causing a complete outage. Option B (changing firewall rules to block all traffic) would also block all traffic and likely not be sustainable. Option C (adding more bandwidth) might absorb some attacks but is not effective against large-scale DDoS attacks and does not address the malicious traffic.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Shut down all external connectivity.
Why it's wrong here
Disrupts business and does not remove attack.
- ✗
Change firewall rules to block all traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Blocks legitimate users as well.
- ✗
Add more bandwidth to absorb the attack.
Why it's wrong here
Impractical and expensive; does not stop attack.
- ✓
Contact the ISP for traffic scrubbing or blackhole routing.
Why this is correct
Effective mitigation at network level.
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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.