The answer is to implement a formal vulnerability management program with defined remediation SLAs based on risk severity. This directly addresses the root cause of the incident—a known vulnerability left unpatched for six months due to competing priorities—by operationalizing the company’s moderate risk appetite through time-bound remediation targets, such as patching critical flaws within 7 days and high-severity issues within 30 days. On the CISM exam, this scenario tests your ability to align governance with operational controls, often appearing as a choice between adding more tools, hiring staff, or enforcing process discipline; the common trap is selecting a technical solution over a management program. The key is recognizing that SLAs transform reactive findings into proactive, enforceable actions without requiring a large budget. Memory tip: “SLAs seal the gaps”—defined timelines ensure that penetration test results don’t gather dust.
CISM Information Security Risk Management Practice Question
This CISM practice question tests your understanding of information security risk management. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
You are the CISM for a mid-sized e-commerce company that processes credit card transactions. The company recently experienced a security incident where an attacker exploited a vulnerability in the web application to gain access to the customer database containing payment card information. The incident response team contained the breach, but the root cause analysis revealed that the vulnerability had been identified in a penetration test six months ago but was not remediated due to competing priorities. The company's risk management framework defines risk appetite as 'moderate' for information security risks. The board is concerned and has asked you to recommend improvements to prevent recurrence. The company has a limited budget and cannot implement all possible controls. Current environment: web application developed in-house, hosted on-premises, with a mix of virtual and physical servers. The security team consists of three people responsible for monitoring, incident response, and vulnerability management. The development team follows an agile methodology with bi-weekly sprints. The company has cyber liability insurance that covers breach response costs up to $2 million. Based on this scenario, what is the most effective course of action?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Implement a formal vulnerability management program with defined remediation SLAs based on risk severity.
Option B is correct because a formal vulnerability management program with defined remediation SLAs directly addresses the root cause: the known vulnerability was not patched due to competing priorities. By tying remediation timelines to risk severity (e.g., critical vulnerabilities patched within 7 days, high within 30 days), the company operationalizes its 'moderate' risk appetite and ensures that penetration test findings are acted upon before they can be exploited. This is the most cost-effective approach given the limited budget, as it leverages existing staff and processes rather than requiring new hires or expensive rewrites.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Hire two additional security analysts to improve monitoring and incident response.
Why it's wrong here
More staff can help but does not ensure vulnerabilities are remediated.
✓
Implement a formal vulnerability management program with defined remediation SLAs based on risk severity.
Why this is correct
This directly addresses the failure to remediate known vulnerabilities, ensuring timely fixes.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Increase cyber liability insurance coverage to $5 million to cover potential breach costs.
Why it's wrong here
Insurance does not prevent breaches; it only provides financial compensation.
✗
Rewrite the web application using a secure development framework to eliminate vulnerabilities.
Why it's wrong here
While beneficial, it is not the most immediate or cost-effective fix for the process gap.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
ISACA often tests the misconception that increasing insurance or hiring more staff is the primary solution to a risk management failure, when in fact the core issue is the lack of a process to enforce remediation of known vulnerabilities within the organization's risk appetite.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
A formal vulnerability management program typically integrates with the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) to assign severity scores and define SLAs, such as patching critical vulnerabilities (CVSS 9.0-10.0) within 7 days and high (CVSS 7.0-8.9) within 30 days. In agile environments, this can be operationalized by adding a 'security sprint' or dedicated remediation tasks to the product backlog, ensuring that vulnerability fixes are prioritized alongside feature development. Real-world examples like the Equifax breach (2017) show that failure to patch a known Apache Struts vulnerability (CVE-2017-5638) led to massive data exposure, underscoring the need for enforceable SLAs rather than relying on competing priorities.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A small business has 20 workstations on the 192.168.1.0/24 network and one public IP from its ISP. The router uses PAT (NAT overload) so all 20 devices share one public address using different source ports. NAT questions test whether you understand the four address terms and which direction each translation applies.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Information Security Risk Management — This question tests Information Security Risk Management — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Implement a formal vulnerability management program with defined remediation SLAs based on risk severity. — Option B is correct because a formal vulnerability management program with defined remediation SLAs directly addresses the root cause: the known vulnerability was not patched due to competing priorities. By tying remediation timelines to risk severity (e.g., critical vulnerabilities patched within 7 days, high within 30 days), the company operationalizes its 'moderate' risk appetite and ensures that penetration test findings are acted upon before they can be exploited. This is the most cost-effective approach given the limited budget, as it leverages existing staff and processes rather than requiring new hires or expensive rewrites.
What should I do if I get this CISM question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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