CISM Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the PRIMARY difference between a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)?
- A BCP is for natural disasters while a DRP is for cyber incidents
- A BCP focuses on keeping business operations running, while a DRP focuses on restoring IT systems (Correct answer)
- A BCP is strategic and a DRP is not required if a BCP exists
- A DRP covers all business functions while a BCP covers only IT functions
Correct answer: A BCP focuses on keeping business operations running, while a DRP focuses on restoring IT systems
A BCP focuses on maintaining critical business operations during a disruption, while a DRP specifically addresses the recovery of IT systems and data.
Question 2: Maximum Tolerable Downtime (MTD) is best described as:
- The time required to fully restore all IT systems after a disaster
- The longest period a business function can be unavailable before causing irreversible harm (Correct answer)
- The average time between system failures in a production environment
- The time between the last backup and the occurrence of a disaster
Correct answer: The longest period a business function can be unavailable before causing irreversible harm
MTD (also called Maximum Tolerable Period of Disruption) defines the upper limit of downtime beyond which the organization faces unacceptable consequences.
Question 3: Which disaster recovery strategy provides the LOWEST recovery time but typically carries the HIGHEST cost?
- Cold site
- Warm site
- Hot site (Correct answer)
- Reciprocal agreement
Correct answer: Hot site
A hot site is fully operational with up-to-date systems and data, enabling the fastest recovery, but requires significant ongoing investment to maintain.
Question 4: During a tabletop exercise, participants are:
- Physically relocating operations to the backup site to test failover
- Discussing and walking through disaster scenarios verbally without system activation (Correct answer)
- Cutting over live systems to the backup environment to measure RTO
- Testing data restoration from offsite backups on production hardware
Correct answer: Discussing and walking through disaster scenarios verbally without system activation
A tabletop exercise is a discussion-based simulation where key personnel walk through disaster scenarios verbally to identify gaps without activating actual recovery systems.
Question 5: What is the role of a cold site in a disaster recovery strategy?
- A fully equipped facility with real-time data replication for immediate failover
- A facility with basic infrastructure such as power and cooling, but no pre-installed IT equipment (Correct answer)
- A cloud environment maintained by a managed service provider
- A secondary data center that mirrors the primary site at reduced capacity
Correct answer: A facility with basic infrastructure such as power and cooling, but no pre-installed IT equipment
A cold site provides basic facilities (space, power, cooling) but has no pre-installed equipment, requiring significant setup time before operations can resume.
Question 6: Which BC/DR test type carries the GREATEST risk of causing unplanned downtime?
- Tabletop exercise
- Structured walkthrough
- Full interruption test (Correct answer)
- Parallel test
Correct answer: Full interruption test
A full interruption test shuts down primary systems and fully activates recovery procedures, carrying the highest risk of real outages if the recovery environment fails.
Question 7: A reciprocal agreement for disaster recovery means:
- Two organizations agree to host each other's operations in the event of a disaster (Correct answer)
- An organization contracts a third party to provide guaranteed backup facilities
- A vendor agrees to provide replacement hardware within an agreed timeframe
- An insurance provider agrees to cover all recovery costs after a declared disaster
Correct answer: Two organizations agree to host each other's operations in the event of a disaster
A reciprocal agreement is an arrangement between two organizations to provide backup processing capacity for each other if one experiences a disaster.
CISM Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery 2
What is the PRIMARY difference between a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)?