CISM Information Security Programme Practice Question
Which of the following is a leading indicator for measuring the effectiveness of a security awareness program?
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
✓
Phishing click rate
Leading indicators are proactive measures that predict future performance; phishing click rate reflects current behavior that influences future security incidents.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Phishing click rate
Why this is correct
Phishing click rate is a leading indicator that shows how well employees are able to identify phishing attempts.
- ✗
Number of breaches
Why it's wrong here
This is a lagging indicator reflecting past failures.
- ✗
Number of security incidents
Why it's wrong here
The number of security incidents is a lagging indicator, reflecting outcomes after failures occur, whereas the question requires a leading indicator that predicts future behaviour change. It is tempting because incident counts are a common security metric, and they would correctly measure programme effectiveness if the question asked for a retrospective outcome measure rather than a proactive behavioural forecast.
- ✗
Mean time to detect (MTTD)
Why it's wrong here
MTTD is a lagging indicator that measures response efficiency after an incident.
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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.