CISM Exam Dumps - Certified Information Security Manager

A ransomware incident is a type of cyberattack that encrypts the victim’s data and demands a ransom for its decryption. Ransomware can cause significant disruption and damage to critical systems and data, as well as financial losses and reputational harm. To recover from a ransomware incident, the organization needs to have reliable and accessible backups of its data, preferably in an encrypted format. However, if the backups are unavailable or corrupt, the organization will face a major challenge in restoring its data and operations. Therefore, option D is the most challenging factor for the recovery of critical systems and data following a ransomware incident. References = CISA MS-ISAC Ransomware Guide1, page 9; How to Write an Incident Response Plan for Ransomware Recovery2.

Intelligent middleware enables dynamic rerouting and automated load balancing, which is crucial for high availability. This minimizes downtime and ensures continuity without manual intervention.

“Middleware solutions can provide automated failover capabilities, improving system resilience and availability.”

— CISM Review Manual 15th Edition, Chapter 3: Program Development and Management, Section: Availability and Resilience*

Manual failover and cold sites introduce delays, which are not suitable for e-business environments requiring near-zero downtime.

Isolating the impacted endpoints is the best course of action for the information security manager after an employee clicked on a link in a phishing email, triggering a ransomware attack because it prevents the ransomware from spreading to other systems or devices on the network, and minimizes the damage or disruption caused by the attack. Wiping the affected system is not a good course of action because it may destroy any evidence or data that could be used for investigation or recovery. Notifying internal legal counsel is not a good course of action because it does not address the immediate threat or impact of the ransomware attack. Notifying senior management is not a good course of action because it does not address the immediate threat or impact of the ransomware attack. References: https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/issues/2017/volume-5/incident-response-lessons-learned https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/issues/2018/volume-3/incident-response-lessons-learned

Computer forensics involves analyzing systems to reconstruct activities and identify what changes or breaches have occurred. It provides a detailed understanding of the sequence of events during an incident.

“Computer forensics provides a detailed, legally defensible analysis of system activities to reconstruct the incident and identify root causes.”

— CISM Review Manual 15th Edition, Chapter 4: Incident Management, Section: Forensics and Investigations*

ISACA practice questions note that computer forensics is key for reconstructing incident activities.

The most important consideration when establishing metrics for reporting to the information security strategy committee is D. Aligning the metrics with the organizational culture. This is because the metrics should reflect the values, beliefs, and behaviors of the organization and its stakeholders, and support the achievement of the strategic objectives and goals. The metrics should also be relevant, meaningful, and understandable for the intended audience, and provide clear and actionable information for decision making. The metrics should not be too technical, complex, or ambiguous, but rather focus on the key aspects of information security performance, such as risk, compliance, maturity, value, and effectiveness.

References = CISM Review Manual 15th Edition, Chapter 1, Section 1.3.2, page 281; CISM Review Questions, Answers & Explanations Manual 9th Edition, Question 5, page 3

Restoring the system from a known good backup is the most appropriate eradication method when responding to an incident resulting in malware on an application server, as it ensures that the system is free of any malicious code and that the data and applications are consistent with the expected state. Disconnecting the system from the network may prevent further spread of the malware, but it does not eradicate it from the system. Changing passwords on the compromised system may reduce the risk of unauthorized access, but it does not remove the malware from the system. Performing operation system hardening may improve the security configuration of the system, but it does not guarantee that the malware is eliminated from the system.

References = CISM Review Manual 2022, page 3131; CISM Exam Content Outline, Domain 4, Task 4.4