ISC2 CC Practice Question: Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, and Incident Response
Which recovery site strategy provides the fastest recovery time, typically within hours, and is a fully mirrored environment ready to take over operations immediately?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is confusing hot and warm sites — candidates pick warm because it sounds 'ready,' but only a hot site has live data and can take over within minutes, while warm sites need days.
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
✓
Hot site
A hot site is a fully mirrored recovery facility with live, synchronized data and duplicate hardware, software, and network infrastructure, enabling failover within minutes to hours. It provides the fastest recovery time among traditional site strategies and is ready to take over operations immediately. This matches the question's description of a fully mirrored, immediately available environment.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reciprocal agreement
Why it's wrong here
A reciprocal agreement relies on another organisation's facilities and shared capacity, which cannot guarantee an immediate mirrored takeover. It is tempting because it appears cost-free, and it would be correct only for low-priority systems where both parties accept delayed, best-effort recovery.
- ✓
Hot site
Why this is correct
A hot site maintains a fully mirrored, continuously synchronised replica of production infrastructure, including live data replication and pre-configured compute. This satisfies the stem's requirement for recovery within hours, since failover needs only traffic redirection rather than hardware provisioning or data restoration, unlike warm or cold alternatives.
- ✗
Warm site
Why it's wrong here
A warm site has hardware and some replicated data but requires configuration and scaling before takeover, so recovery exceeds the immediate failover described. It is tempting as a middle-ground cost option, and it would be correct when hours of downtime are tolerable.
- ✗
Cold site
Why it's wrong here
A cold site holds basic infrastructure with no replicated data or running systems, so recovery takes days or weeks, not hours. It is tempting because it is the cheapest option, and it would be correct for non-critical workloads where extended downtime is acceptable.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Network Security Foundations
Key term
Failover
Failover is the automatic switching to a backup system when the primary system fails, ensuring continuous operation and minimal downtime.
Key term
Recovery
Recovery is the process of restoring systems, data, and operations after a security incident, failure, or disaster to return to normal functioning.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official ISC2 exam blueprint
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.