The correct action is to redirect all traffic to a cloud-based scrubbing center. This is the right choice because a cloud-based scrubbing center acts as a dedicated DDoS mitigation service that filters malicious traffic before it reaches your network, preserving the active-active data center architecture. Since the internal network remains operational and only external connectivity is saturated, rerouting traffic through the scrubbing center allows clean traffic to be re-injected into both data centers, maintaining service availability without taking any site offline. On the ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity CC exam, this scenario tests your understanding of DDoS mitigation strategies within a high-availability design—a common trap is thinking you must fail over to the second data center, but that would also be saturated if the attack targets your external links. A useful memory tip is “scrub before you switch”: always filter the attack upstream before rerouting traffic, not after.
ISC2 CC Business Continuity, DR & Incident Response Practice Question
This CC practice question tests your understanding of business continuity, dr & incident response. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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.
An online retailer has a DR plan that includes active-active data centers. During a major DDoS attack, one data center's external connectivity is saturated. The internal network is operational. The security team has identified the attack traffic pattern and is working with the ISP to filter. To maintain service availability, what action should be taken?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Redirect all traffic to a cloud-based scrubbing center.
Option B is correct because a cloud-based scrubbing center (DDoS mitigation service) can filter malicious traffic before it reaches the retailer's network, preserving the active-active data center architecture. Since the internal network is operational, the attack only saturates external connectivity; redirecting traffic to the scrubbing center allows clean traffic to be re-injected into the data centers, maintaining service availability without taking any site offline.
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.
✗
Shut down the attacked data center and fail all traffic to the other data center.
Why it's wrong here
Could overload the other site and cause performance issues.
✓
Redirect all traffic to a cloud-based scrubbing center.
Why this is correct
Filters attack traffic and maintains service availability.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Implement rate limiting on the affected network segment.
Why it's wrong here
May block legitimate users and not fully mitigate the attack.
✗
Continue monitoring and let the ISP handle the attack.
Why it's wrong here
Passive approach may result in prolonged downtime.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
ISC2 often tests the misconception that shutting down a data center is the safest failover action during a DDoS, but the trap here is that active-active designs require keeping both sites operational to maintain capacity and redundancy, and scrubbing centers are the correct mitigation technique for external saturation.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
A cloud-based scrubbing center uses BGP route announcements (e.g., via RTBH or Flowspec) to divert traffic through deep packet inspection and anomaly detection, stripping attack vectors like SYN floods or DNS amplification. The clean traffic is then tunneled back to the original data centers via GRE or IPsec, preserving the active-active load balancing. In real-world scenarios, this approach is critical when ISPs cannot filter fast enough or when attack traffic exceeds 100 Gbps, as scrubbing centers have dedicated mitigation capacity.
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 security analyst at a medium-sized enterprise encounters this scenario during an investigation or architecture review. The correct answer reflects best practice for the specific threat or control described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Security exam questions test whether you can match controls to threats in context — not just recall definitions.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this CC question in full detail.
Business Continuity, DR & Incident Response — This question tests Business Continuity, DR & Incident Response — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Redirect all traffic to a cloud-based scrubbing center. — Option B is correct because a cloud-based scrubbing center (DDoS mitigation service) can filter malicious traffic before it reaches the retailer's network, preserving the active-active data center architecture. Since the internal network is operational, the attack only saturates external connectivity; redirecting traffic to the scrubbing center allows clean traffic to be re-injected into the data centers, maintaining service availability without taking any site offline.
What should I do if I get this CC 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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