CISM Incident Management Practice Question
During a P1 (critical) incident, the incident response manager is coordinating response activities. Who is primarily responsible for activating the crisis management team (CMT)?
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
✓
The incident response manager
The crisis management team is typically activated by the incident response manager or a designated authority when an incident has major business impact. The CMT includes senior executives like CEO, CFO, CISO, GC, and Communications lead.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The communications lead
Why it's wrong here
The communications lead is a member of the CMT and handles external messaging, not activation.
- ✗
The legal counsel
Why it's wrong here
Legal counsel provides advice but does not typically activate the CMT.
- ✓
The incident response manager
Why this is correct
The IR manager assesses the severity and activates the CMT when the incident is critical (P1).
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The CEO of the organization
Why it's wrong here
While the CEO is part of the CMT, the activation is usually done by the IR manager based on incident severity.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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