CISM Incident Management Practice Question
An organization has experienced a DDoS attack that is overwhelming its internet-facing services. The incident response team has implemented mitigations, but services remain degraded. The maximum tolerable downtime (MTD) for the affected services is 4 hours, and 3 hours have passed. Which of the following should the incident manager do NEXT?
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
✓
Escalate to the crisis management team to consider activating the disaster recovery plan.
If an incident cannot be resolved within the MTD, it should transition to BC/DR activation. The decision authority (e.g., CISO or CMT) should declare a disaster.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Continue current mitigation efforts and reassess after another hour.
Why it's wrong here
With only 1 hour left until MTD, waiting may exceed downtime limits.
- ✗
Increase the capacity of the DDoS mitigation service.
Why it's wrong here
While possible, this may not be enough; BC/DR activation should be considered.
- ✓
Escalate to the crisis management team to consider activating the disaster recovery plan.
Why this is correct
This allows for a timely decision to invoke BC/DR before MTD expires.
- ✗
Notify customers of a prolonged outage.
Why it's wrong here
Customer notification is important but should follow BC/DR activation if needed.
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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.