ISC2 CC Business Continuity, DR & Incident Response Practice Question
According to the NIST 800-61 incident response lifecycle, after containment and eradication have been performed, what is the next phase?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the exact NIST 800-61 phase order, and the trap here is that candidates confuse 'Post-incident activity' as the immediate next step after eradication, when in fact Recovery must occur first to restore operations before conducting the final review.
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
✓
Recovery
According to the NIST 800-61 incident response lifecycle, the phases are Preparation, Detection & Analysis, Containment/Eradication, and Recovery. After containment (isolating the threat) and eradication (removing malware, patching vulnerabilities), the next phase is Recovery, where systems are carefully restored to normal operations, often using clean backups and verifying system integrity before reconnecting to the network.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Recovery
Why this is correct
Recovery follows containment and eradication in the NIST 800-61 lifecycle, restoring affected systems to normal operation and validating they are free of residual threats before returning them to production. This directly satisfies the stem's sequencing constraint, as the standard orders the phases: preparation, detection and analysis, containment, eradication, recovery, then post-incident activity.
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Post-incident activity
Why it's wrong here
Post-incident activity is the phase NIST 800-61 places after containment, eradication and recovery, covering lessons learned and evidence retention. It is tempting because the stem omits recovery, so candidates may think containment and eradication lead directly here, but recovery must intervene first.
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Detection and analysis
Why it's wrong here
Detection and analysis precedes containment in the NIST 800-61 lifecycle, so it cannot follow eradication. It is tempting because analysis continues throughout an incident, but as a named phase it is the second stage, occurring before containment rather than after eradication.
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Preparation
Why it's wrong here
Preparation precedes the incident, establishing tools, playbooks and training before detection occurs; it cannot follow eradication. It is tempting because NIST 800-61 lists Preparation as the first lifecycle phase, so it would be the correct answer to a question asking which phase comes before detection and analysis.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Secure Network Architecture and Design
Key term
Eradication
Eradication is the phase in incident response where the root cause of a security breach is completely removed from the system to prevent the attack from happening again.
Key term
Preparation
Preparation is the first phase of incident response where organizations proactively establish policies, tools, training, and procedures to handle security incidents effectively.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CC practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 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 CC exam.