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CRISC Practice Question: A financial institution has implemented a…
A financial institution has implemented a continuous monitoring solution for its core banking application. The monitoring team receives an alert indicating that the average response time for a critical transaction has exceeded the threshold for the past 15 minutes. The transaction volume during this period is within normal range. What should be the FIRST step in the incident response process?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse 'analysis' (comparing to baselines) or 'escalation' as the first step, but CRISC emphasizes that verification and impact assessment must precede any further action to avoid wasted effort on false alarms.
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
✓
Verify the alert by reviewing real-time logs and metrics, then assess the potential impact on business operations.
The first step in incident response is to validate the alert by reviewing real-time logs and metrics to confirm it is not a false positive, and then assess the potential impact on business operations. This aligns with the NIST SP 800-61 incident response lifecycle, where detection and analysis precede containment or escalation. Without verification, subsequent actions like vendor contact or escalation may be premature and waste resources.
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 the application vendor to report a potential performance issue.
Why it's wrong here
Contacting the vendor should only be done after internal analysis.
- ✓
Verify the alert by reviewing real-time logs and metrics, then assess the potential impact on business operations.
Why this is correct
Verification and impact assessment are the correct first steps.
- ✗
Compare current response time with historical baselines to determine if this is an anomaly.
Why it's wrong here
This can be done after verification, but not as the first step.
- ✗
Escalate the alert to the IT operations manager and the application owner immediately.
Why it's wrong here
Escalating before verification may cause unnecessary alarm.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CRISC 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 CRISC exam.