CISM Incident Management Practice Question
Which incident severity level requires executive notification and a 24/7 response?
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
✓
P1 — Critical
P1 (critical) incidents have major business impact and require immediate executive notification and round-the-clock response.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
P2 — High
Why it's wrong here
P2 — High triggers escalation and urgent response, but executive notification with continuous 24/7 staffing is reserved for P1 — Critical, where business-threatening impact demands it. P2 is tempting because it is the highest severity below critical.
- ✗
P3 — Medium
Why it's wrong here
P3 covers minor impact handled through normal queues, so it carries no executive notification or round-the-clock escalation. It is tempting because medium severity still warrants tracking and service-desk attention, and P3 would be right where a single user is degraded but work continues.
- ✓
P1 — Critical
Why this is correct
P1 Critical denotes the highest severity, where business-critical systems or data are affected, so the plan mandates immediate round-the-clock response and escalation to executives. This satisfies the stem's requirement linking executive notification with continuous 24/7 response.
- ✗
P4 — Low
Why it's wrong here
P4 — Low is handled through normal business-hours processes with no executive escalation or round-the-clock staffing. It is tempting as a distractor because severity labels invite the assumption that any incident warrants notification, yet P4's minimal impact requires neither.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This CISM question is part of Courseiva's 924-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam 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.