Domain 4 Capstone Review: Incident Management
This capstone tests:
- Preparedness before incidents
- Structured execution during incidents
- Governance alignment after incidents
Think impact. Think proportionality. Think defensibility.
Question 1
An organization restores systems in arbitrary order during an outage.
What is the MOST likely root cause?
- Encryption weakness
- Vendor inefficiency
- Lack of BIA-driven recovery prioritization
- Reduced automation
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: C
Recovery sequencing must align with BIA-defined impact.
Question 2
An IRP exists but does not define severity-based escalation thresholds.
What is the PRIMARY risk?
- Inconsistent escalation and executive visibility
- Reduced automation
- Encryption gap
- Vendor inefficiency
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: A
Severity tiers drive structured escalation.
Question 3
RPO is 2 hours, but backups occur once daily.
What is the PRIMARY issue?
- Reduced automation
- Vendor oversight
- Encryption deficiency
- Misalignment between backup frequency and recovery objective
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: D
Backup strategy must align with RPO.
Question 4
During investigation, logs are overwritten before analysis.
What is the MOST significant risk?
- Encryption gap
- Loss of forensic evidence and legal defensibility
- Vendor inefficiency
- Reduced automation
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: B
Evidence preservation is critical.
Question 5
A ransomware attack is contained but credentials are not reset.
What is the PRIMARY concern?
- Reduced automation
- Encryption weakness
- Continued unauthorized access risk
- Vendor inefficiency
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: C
Credential reset is part of eradication.
Question 6
Executives are not included in tabletop exercises.
What is the MOST significant governance risk?
- Leadership unpreparedness during crisis
- Encryption gap
- Vendor inefficiency
- Monitoring delay
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: A
Executive participation validates decision readiness.
Question 7
A breach is classified as medium severity to avoid board reporting.
What principle is violated?
- Automation discipline
- Monitoring frequency
- Vendor governance
- Objective severity classification
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: D
Severity must reflect business impact.
Question 8
Containment shuts down all systems, including critical revenue platforms, without assessment.
What was ignored?
- Encryption deficiency
- Proportional response aligned with business impact
- Vendor oversight
- Reduced automation
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: B
Containment must consider business continuity.
Question 9
Regulatory notification is delayed pending full investigation.
What is the PRIMARY risk?
- Encryption weakness
- Vendor inefficiency
- Regulatory noncompliance and penalties
- Monitoring delay
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: C
Deadlines must be met even during ongoing investigation.
Question 10
After recovery, no additional monitoring is implemented.
What is the PRIMARY weakness?
- Failure to validate eradication success
- Reduced automation
- Encryption deficiency
- Vendor oversight
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: A
Post-recovery monitoring confirms control effectiveness.
Question 11
A DRP has not been updated after major cloud migration.
What is the MOST significant risk?
- Reduced automation
- Vendor inefficiency
- Encryption gap
- Recovery procedures no longer reflect infrastructure reality
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: D
DRP must reflect current architecture.
Question 12
An organization conducts annual exercises using the same scenario.
What is the PRIMARY issue?
- Encryption deficiency
- Limited preparedness for diverse threat landscape
- Vendor oversight
- Monitoring delay
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: B
Testing must evolve with risk landscape.
Question 13
Investigation concludes quickly without assessing third-party involvement.
What is the PRIMARY risk?
- Encryption weakness
- Vendor inefficiency
- Incomplete scope determination
- Reduced automation
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: C
Scope must include potential vendor exposure.
Question 14
A BCP focuses only on IT system restoration.
What is the PRIMARY misunderstanding?
- Confusion between business continuity and disaster recovery
- Encryption gap
- Vendor oversight
- Reduced automation
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: A
BCP ensures operations continue beyond IT recovery.
Question 15
Containment actions are undocumented.
What is the MOST significant issue?
- Encryption deficiency
- Monitoring delay
- Vendor oversight
- Reduced governance traceability and defensibility
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: D
Documentation supports legal and governance review.
Question 16
After an incident, remediation actions are identified but not assigned.
What is the PRIMARY weakness?
- Encryption gap
- Lack of accountability for corrective measures
- Vendor inefficiency
- Reduced automation
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: B
Remediation must have defined ownership.
Question 17
An organization restores from backups but does not validate integrity.
What is the PRIMARY risk?
- Encryption deficiency
- Vendor oversight
- Reintroduction of compromised systems
- Monitoring delay
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: C
Validation ensures clean recovery.
Question 18
Incident communication occurs through informal messaging tools.
What is the MOST significant governance concern?
- Lack of centralized documentation and control
- Encryption gap
- Vendor inefficiency
- Reduced automation
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: A
Communication must be structured and documented.
Question 19
Incident classification criteria are undefined.
What is the PRIMARY risk?
- Encryption weakness
- Reduced automation
- Vendor inefficiency
- Inconsistent escalation and reporting
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: D
Defined criteria ensure consistent handling.
Question 20
Root cause analysis identifies patching failures, but no policy updates occur.
What is the PRIMARY governance gap?
- Reduced automation
- Failure to integrate lessons learned
- Encryption deficiency
- Vendor oversight
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: B
Policy updates reflect program improvement.
Question 21
A major breach is resolved but not reported to the board.
What is the PRIMARY concern?
- Lack of governance transparency
- Encryption weakness
- Vendor inefficiency
- Monitoring delay
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: A
Material incidents require executive visibility.
Question 22
Incident tools are purchased but not integrated with case management processes.
What is the PRIMARY weakness?
- Reduced automation
- Vendor oversight
- Encryption deficiency
- Tool capability without governance alignment
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: D
Tools must support structured response processes.
Question 23
A severe breach is fully contained, but no post-incident review occurs.
What is the MOST significant risk?
- Encryption gap
- Vendor inefficiency
- Lost opportunity to improve program resilience
- Reduced automation
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: C
Continuous improvement defines maturity.
Question 24
An organization lacks a documented IRP but has strong technical staff.
What is the PRIMARY governance issue?
- Encryption deficiency
- Absence of structured escalation and accountability
- Vendor oversight
- Monitoring delay
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: B
Structure ensures consistency and defensibility.
Question 25
A mature incident management program should demonstrate:
- Integrated readiness, disciplined execution, and continuous improvement
- Advanced forensic tools
- Daily vulnerability scans
- Vendor certifications
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer: A
Maturity integrates preparedness, structured response, and governance feedback.