ISC2 CC Business Continuity, DR & Incident Response Practice Question
Which TWO actions are most effective in reducing the mean time to detect (MTTD) a security incident?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse preventive controls (MFA, training, firewall rules) with detective controls, failing to recognize that only logging and monitoring tools directly reduce the time to detect an incident.
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
✓
Implementing a SIEM with centralized logging from critical systems
A SIEM with centralized logging aggregates and correlates logs from critical systems, enabling real-time analysis and automated alerting. This drastically reduces MTTD by surfacing indicators of compromise (IoCs) within minutes rather than hours or days, as manual log review would require.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Requiring multi-factor authentication for all remote access
Why it's wrong here
MFA is a preventive control, not a detective control.
- ✓
Implementing a SIEM with centralized logging from critical systems
Why this is correct
SIEM correlates events and alerts analysts, reducing detection time.
- ✗
Conducting annual security awareness training for all employees
Why it's wrong here
Annual training helps prevent incidents but does not significantly reduce detection time.
- ✓
Deploying endpoint detection and response (EDR) agents on all workstations
Why this is correct
EDR provides real-time monitoring and alerts on suspicious activity, reducing MTTD.
- ✗
Standardizing firewall rules across all network segments
Why it's wrong here
Standardization improves security posture but does not directly impact detection speed.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to Security Principles
Key term
Analysis
In incident response, analysis is the process of examining data and events to determine what happened, how it happened, and what actions to take.
Key term
SIEM
SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) is a system that collects and analyzes log data from across an IT environment to detect and respond to security threats in real time.
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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.