CISM Incident Management Practice Question
An organization is engaging an external forensics firm to investigate a suspected data breach. Which of the following is the most important step to ensure that evidence remains admissible in legal proceedings?
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
✓
Issuing a legal hold and making forensic copies of affected systems before remediation
Preserving the chain of custody and ensuring forensic copies are made before remediation is critical for evidence admissibility. Legal hold ensures that relevant data is preserved.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Ensuring the forensics firm has signed a non-disclosure agreement
Why it's wrong here
Confidentiality is important, but it does not directly affect evidence admissibility.
- ✗
Negotiating a fixed price for the investigation
Why it's wrong here
Cost negotiation is unrelated to evidence handling.
- ✗
Requiring the forensics firm to report findings directly to the CEO
Why it's wrong here
Reporting structure is not directly related to evidence admissibility.
- ✓
Issuing a legal hold and making forensic copies of affected systems before remediation
Why this is correct
Legal hold preserves evidence, and forensic copies ensure the original evidence is untouched.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every CISM question from scratch — 871 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.