ATP Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A hot site is activated but the team realizes the replicated database is corrupted due to logical errors propagated from production. Which DR concept addresses this scenario?
- Geographic redundancy
- Point-in-time recovery (Correct answer)
- Load balancing
- Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)
Correct answer: Point-in-time recovery
Point-in-time recovery allows restoration to a known-good snapshot before the logical corruption occurred, bypassing data that was replicated in an error state.
Question 2: Which component of a Business Continuity Plan addresses how an organization will communicate with employees, customers, and stakeholders during a crisis?
- Risk register
- Crisis communication plan (Correct answer)
- Asset management policy
- Change management procedure
Correct answer: Crisis communication plan
The crisis communication plan within a BCP defines messaging protocols, spokespersons, communication channels, and notification sequences for all stakeholder groups.
Question 3: Which DR testing method provides the most realistic validation of recovery capabilities but carries the highest operational risk?
- Checklist review
- Tabletop exercise
- Parallel test
- Full interruption test (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Full interruption test
A full interruption test actually shuts down primary systems and switches to DR infrastructure, providing realistic validation but risking actual service disruption.
Question 4: What is the primary purpose of establishing a Maximum Acceptable Outage (MAO) or Maximum Tolerable Downtime (MTD)?
- To set vendor SLA penalties
- To define the longest period the business can survive without a critical function before suffering irreversible harm (Correct answer)
- To determine hardware refresh cycles
- To calculate insurance premiums
Correct answer: To define the longest period the business can survive without a critical function before suffering irreversible harm
MAO/MTD represents the absolute limit of downtime tolerance before the organization faces catastrophic consequences such as bankruptcy, legal liability, or irreversible customer loss.
Question 5: During recovery, a team finds that a critical application requires a license key stored only on the now-destroyed primary server. What DR planning failure does this illustrate?
- Insufficient hardware at the recovery site
- Failure to document and escrow software license and configuration information (Correct answer)
- Inadequate network bandwidth at the DR site
- Poor change management process
Correct answer: Failure to document and escrow software license and configuration information
DR plans must include documentation and secure storage of license keys, configuration files, and other intangible assets needed to rebuild systems.
Question 6: A company uses a cloud-based DR strategy where infrastructure is pre-provisioned but idle until a disaster is declared. Which model does this describe?
- Cold cloud DR
- Pilot light (Correct answer)
- Warm standby
- Multi-site active/active
Correct answer: Pilot light
The pilot light model keeps a minimal core of critical infrastructure running (like a pilot light on a furnace) and scales it up quickly upon disaster declaration.
Question 7: Which standard provides internationally recognized guidance for Business Continuity Management Systems (BCMS)?
- ISO 27001
- ISO 22301 (Correct answer)
- NIST SP 800-53
- COBIT 2019
Correct answer: ISO 22301
ISO 22301 is the international standard specifically focused on Business Continuity Management Systems, providing requirements for planning, implementing, and improving BCM.
ATP Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity 3
A hot site is activated but the team realizes the replicated database is corrupted due to logical errors propagated from production.
Which DR concept addresses this scenario?