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CISM Practice Question: During an incident investigation, the response…
During an incident investigation, the response team discovers that the attacker exploited a known vulnerability for which a patch was available but not applied. What should be the team's primary focus during the recovery phase?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse the recovery phase with the post-incident activity phase, choosing 'lessons learned' (Option C) instead of the immediate technical fix required to restore a secure state.
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
✓
Applying the missing patch and ensuring all systems are updated.
The primary goal of the recovery phase is to restore secure operations and prevent recurrence. Applying the missing patch directly remediates the exploited vulnerability, eliminating the attacker's entry point and hardening the system against future exploitation of that specific CVE. This aligns with the NIST SP 800-61 recovery step of 'removing artifacts and restoring systems to a secure state'.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Applying the missing patch and ensuring all systems are updated.
Why this is correct
Correct: Direct remediation of the vulnerability.
- ✗
Disciplining the employee responsible for patch management.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Disciplinary action is an organizational issue, not part of recovery.
- ✗
Conducting a lessons-learned meeting.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Lessons learned occurs after recovery.
- ✗
Reporting the incident to law enforcement.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Reporting may be required but is not the primary recovery focus.
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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.