CISM Incident Management Practice Question
An organization is conducting a root cause analysis after an insider threat incident. Which of the following tools is MOST appropriate for identifying the underlying management governance failure?
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
✓
5 Whys
The 5 Whys technique is a simple but effective method to drill down from technical cause to process failure to management failure.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Risk assessment
Why it's wrong here
Risk assessment estimates likelihood and impact to prioritise treatment; it does not trace causal chains back to governance decisions. It is chosen when scoping exposure or ranking threats, whereas root cause analysis requires causal techniques examining oversight and management failures.
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SWOT analysis
Why it's wrong here
SWOT analysis assesses internal strengths and weaknesses against external opportunities and threats, typically for strategic planning. It cannot trace causal chains from an incident back to governance failures such as missing segregation of duties or absent oversight controls. A structured root cause method like the five whys or fishbone would expose those management gaps.
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5 Whys
Why this is correct
5 Whys iteratively probes causal layers beyond the immediate actor, exposing management governance failures such as inadequate segregation of duties, absent oversight or weak policy enforcement. Technical tools identify what happened; only causal questioning reaches the underlying governance deficiency that enabled the insider threat.
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Gap analysis
Why it's wrong here
Gap analysis compares current controls against a chosen framework, surfacing missing controls rather than tracing why governance permitted the incident. It suits compliance readiness assessments; root cause analysis instead examines decision-making and oversight failures behind the event.
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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.