hardMultiple Choice
ISC2 CC Practice Question: After a security incident, the incident response…
After a security incident, the incident response team closes the case. What is the MOST important final step to improve future security posture?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the distinction between immediate remediation steps (like patching or credential revocation) and the final continuous improvement step (post-incident review), trapping candidates who confuse containment/recovery with the ultimate goal of preventing future incidents.
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
✓
Conduct a post-incident review and update policies
The post-incident review (often called a lessons-learned meeting) is the final step that analyzes root causes, identifies gaps in detection or response, and drives updates to policies, playbooks, and security controls. Without this review, the same vulnerability or misconfiguration could be exploited again, even if immediate containment steps like credential revocation or patching were performed. The goal is to close the incident with a feedback loop that improves the overall security posture, not just restore operations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Revoke all compromised credentials
Why it's wrong here
Revoking compromised credentials is containment, performed during the incident, not the closing step that improves posture. The final step is a lessons-learned review producing remediation actions. Revocation is correct when an active account is still being abused and access must be cut immediately.
- ✗
Patch all systems
Why it's wrong here
Patching removes the exploited vulnerability but is a remediation action, not the closing activity that identifies why the incident succeeded. The final step is a post-incident lessons-learned review. Patching is correct as a follow-up task once that review assigns it.
- ✗
Restore all systems from backup
Why it's wrong here
Restoring from backup recovers availability after destructive activity; it is recovery, not the closing step that strengthens future defence. The final step is a lessons-learned review. Restoration is correct when data or systems were corrupted and must be returned to a known-good state.
- ✓
Conduct a post-incident review and update policies
Why this is correct
A post-incident review extracts root cause and control gaps while evidence is fresh, then feeds them into updated policies — satisfying the stem's demand for improved future posture. Closing without this step leaves systemic weaknesses unaddressed, so the same attack path recurs. Microsoft Entra ID conditional access tuning often emerges from such reviews.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Incident Response and Management
Key term
Incident
An incident is a security event that violates an organization's policies or threatens its data, systems, or operations, requiring a structured response.
Key term
Incident response
Incident response is the structured approach an organization uses to identify, contain, and recover from cybersecurity incidents like data breaches or ransomware attacks.
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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.