CISM Incident Management Practice Question
During a major cybersecurity incident, the incident response team determines that the incident cannot be resolved within the maximum tolerable downtime (MTD). Which of the following actions should be taken next?
⚠ Common exam trap
CISM often tests the confusion between incident response escalation and disaster declaration — candidates pick 'notify executives' when the correct trigger is MTD breach, which mandates BC/DR activation.
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
✓
Declare a disaster and activate the BC/DR plan
When an incident cannot be resolved within the MTD, the organization has exceeded its tolerance for downtime, which qualifies as a disaster. The next step is to declare a disaster and activate the Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) plan to restore critical operations through alternate means.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Conduct a root cause analysis
Why it's wrong here
Root cause analysis is a post-incident activity; performing it while recovery is still pending consumes time that the breached MTD no longer permits. It suits incidents already contained and resolved, where understanding the cause prevents recurrence without delaying restoration.
- ✓
Declare a disaster and activate the BC/DR plan
Why this is correct
Declaring a disaster activates the BC/DR plan, which provides pre-approved recovery strategies, resource allocation and escalation paths when MTD cannot be met. The MTD breach is the trigger criterion; the BC/DR plan exists precisely to restore critical services beyond normal incident response capabilities, ensuring business continuity within recovery objectives.
- ✗
Notify the executive sponsor and continue response efforts
Why it's wrong here
Notifying the executive sponsor and continuing response efforts does not address the breached MTD; the business impact analysis requires invoking the continuity or disaster recovery plan to restore services through alternate means. Escalation alone suits incidents still within MTD where response can realistically succeed.
- ✗
Increase the number of incident responders
Why it's wrong here
Adding responders does not change the technical reality that recovery will exceed the MTD; the constraint is time, not staffing capacity. Scaling the team suits incidents where effort, not elapsed time, is the limiting factor and the MTD remains achievable.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official ISACA exam blueprint
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.