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CISM Practice Question: Which TWO actions are appropriate during the…
Which TWO actions are appropriate during the containment phase of an incident involving a malware outbreak on multiple workstations?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse containment with eradication or communication, mistakenly selecting 'reimage all affected workstations immediately' as a containment step, when in fact reimaging is an eradication action that should occur after containment and evidence collection.
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
✓
Isolate infected workstations from the network
Isolating infected workstations from the network is a primary containment action that prevents the malware from spreading laterally to other systems, limiting the scope of the incident. This is typically achieved by disconnecting network cables, disabling switch ports, or using network access control (NAC) to quarantine the affected hosts, which stops further propagation without destroying forensic evidence.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Contact all users to warn them about the malware
Why it's wrong here
May cause unnecessary alarm and is not containment.
- ✗
Reimage all affected workstations immediately
Why it's wrong here
Reimaging is remediation, done after containment.
- ✓
Isolate infected workstations from the network
Why this is correct
Isolation stops lateral movement.
- ✗
Notify customers about potential data breach
Why it's wrong here
Notification is external communication, not containment.
- ✓
Block known malicious domains and IPs at the firewall
Why this is correct
Blocks command-and-control communication.
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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.