CISSP Business Continuity 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which backup strategy involves copying only data that has changed since the LAST FULL backup, regardless of previous incremental backups?
- Incremental backup
- Differential backup (Correct answer)
- Mirror backup
- Full backup
Correct answer: Differential backup
A differential backup captures all data changed since the last full backup, making restoration require only the full backup plus the latest differential.
Question 2: An organization uses tape backups stored in the same building as the primary data center. What BCP risk does this create?
- Increased RTO due to slow tape restoration
- Loss of backup data in the same disaster that affects primary systems (Correct answer)
- Regulatory non-compliance with data retention requirements
- Inability to perform incremental backup schedules
Correct answer: Loss of backup data in the same disaster that affects primary systems
Storing backups on-site means a physical disaster such as fire or flood could destroy both primary and backup data simultaneously.
Question 3: What is the PRIMARY goal of an exercise after-action review (AAR) in business continuity?
- To assign blame for failures discovered during the test
- To document lessons learned and improve the BCP (Correct answer)
- To certify that the BCP meets regulatory requirements
- To calculate the financial cost of the simulated disaster
Correct answer: To document lessons learned and improve the BCP
An AAR captures what worked, what failed, and what gaps were found during a BCP exercise to drive plan improvements.
Question 4: Which type of alternate site provides space and power but requires the organization to bring and install its own equipment before operations can resume?
- Hot site
- Warm site
- Cold site (Correct answer)
- Virtual site
Correct answer: Cold site
A cold site provides only basic infrastructure (space, power, HVAC) with no pre-installed equipment, requiring significant setup time.
Question 5: A company's BCP states that payroll processing must resume within 24 hours of any disaster. This statement defines which metric?
- RPO
- MTD
- RTO (Correct answer)
- MTBF
Correct answer: RTO
The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) specifies the maximum acceptable time to restore a business process after a disruption.
Question 6: Which BCP strategy involves outsourcing critical business functions to a third party that can absorb them during a disaster?
- Reciprocal agreement
- Hot site
- Business process outsourcing (BPO) continuity arrangement (Correct answer)
- Mutual aid agreement
Correct answer: Business process outsourcing (BPO) continuity arrangement
A BPO continuity arrangement contracts a third-party service provider to execute specific business functions if the organization cannot.
Question 7: Under the CISSP CBK, who holds ULTIMATE responsibility for approving and sponsoring the Business Continuity Plan?
- Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
- BCP coordinator
- Senior management / executive leadership (Correct answer)
- IT department head
Correct answer: Senior management / executive leadership
Senior management or executive leadership bears ultimate accountability for the BCP because business continuity is an organizational governance function.
