Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Flashcards

2
Q
You are concerned about the risk that an avalanche poses to your $3 million shipping facility. Based on expert opinion, you determine that there is a 5 percent chance that an avalanche will occur each year. Experts advise you that an avalanche would completely destroy your building and require you to rebuild on the same land. Ninety percent of the $3 million value of the facility is attributed to the building and 10 percent is attributed to the land itself. What is the single loss expectancy of your shipping facility to avalanches?
A) $3,000,000
B) $2,700,000
C) $270,000
D) $135,000
A

$2,700,000

The SLE is the product of the AV and the EF. From the scenario, you know that the AV is $3,000,000 and the EF is 90 percent, based on that the same land can be used to rebuild the facility. This yields an SLE of $2,700,000.

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3
Q
What unit of measurement should be used to assign quantitative values to assets in the priority identification phase of the business impact assessment?
A) Monetary
B) Utility
C) Importance
D) Time
A

Monetary

The quantitative portion of the priority identification should assign asset values in monetary units.

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4
Q
In which one of the following database recovery techniques is an exact, up-to-date copy of the database maintained at an alternative location?
A) Transaction logging
B) Remote journaling
C) Electronic vaulting
D) Remote mirroring
A

Remote mirroring

When you use remote mirroring, an exact copy of the database is maintained at an alternative location. You keep the remote copy up-to-date by executing all transactions on both the primary and remote site at the same time.

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5
Q
What kind of recovery facility enables an organization to resume operations as quickly as possible, if not immediately, upon failure of the primary facility?
A) Hot site
B) Warm site
C) Cold site
D) All of these are correct
A

Hot site

Hot sites provide backup facilities maintained in constant working order and fully capable of taking over business operations. Warm sites consist of preconfigured hardware and software to run the business, neither of which possesses the vital business information. Cold sites are simply facilities designed with power and environmental support systems but no configured hardware, software, or services. Disaster recovery services can facilitate and implement any of these sites on behalf of a company.

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6
Q
Which one of the following concerns is not suitable for quantitative measurement during the business impact assessment?
A) Loss of a plant
B) Damage to a vehicle
C) Negative publicity
D) Power outage
A

Negative publicity

It is very difficult to put a dollar figure on the business lost because of negative publicity. Therefore, this type of concern is better evaluated through a qualitative analysis.

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7
Q
Which one of the following disaster types is not usually covered by standard business or homeowner's insurance?
A) Earthquake
B) Flood
C) Fire
D) Theft
A

Flood

Most general business insurance and homeowner’s insurance policies do not provide any protection against the risk of flooding or flash floods. If floods pose a risk to your organization, you should consider purchasing supplemental flood insurance under FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program.

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8
Q
Which of the following represent natural events that can pose a threat or risk to an organization?
A) Earthquake
B) Flood
C) Tornado
D) All of these are correct
A

All of these are correct

Natural events that can threaten organizations include earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, and other acts of nature as well. Thus all these options are correct because they are natural and not man made.

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9
Q

Which of the following statements about business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning is incorrect?
A) Business continuity planning is focused on keeping business functions uninterrupted when a disaster strikes.
B) Organizations can choose whether to develop business continuity planning or disaster recovery planning plans.
C) Business continuity planning picks up where disaster recovery planning leaves off.
D) Disaster recovery planning guides an organization through recovery of normal operations at the primary facility.

A

Business continuity planning picks up where disaster recovery planning leaves off.

The opposite of this statement is true-disaster recovery planning picks up where business continuity planning leaves off. The other three statements are all accurate reflections of the role of business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning.

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10
Q
What is the formula used to compute the ALE?
A) ALE = AV * EF * ARO
B) ALE = ARO * EF
C) ALE = AV * ARO
D) ALE = EF * ARO
A

ALE = AV * EF * ARO

The annualized loss expectancy (ALE) is computed as the product of the asset value (AV) times the exposure factor (EF) times the annualized rate of occurrence (ARO). This is the longer form of the formula ALE = SLE * ARO. The other formulas displayed here do not accurately reflect this calculation.

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11
Q
What disaster recovery principle best protects your organization against hardware failure?
A) Consistency
B) Efficiency
C) Redundancy
D) Primacy
A

Redundancy

Redundant systems/components provide protection against the failure of one particular piece of hardware.

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12
Q
Which resource should you protect first when designing continuity plan provisions and processes?
A) Physical plant
B) Infrastructure
C) Financial
D) People
A

People

The safety of human life must always be the paramount concern in business continuity planning. Be sure that your plan reflects this priority, especially in the written documentation that is disseminated to your organization’s employees!

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13
Q
What type of document will help public relations specialists and other individuals who need a high-level summary of disaster recovery efforts while they are underway?
A) Executive summary
B) Technical guides
C) Department-specific plans
D) Checklists
A

Executive summary

The executive summary provides a high-level view of the entire organization’s disaster recovery efforts. This document is useful for the managers and leaders of the firm as well as public relations personnel who need a nontechnical perspective on this complex effort.

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14
Q

What combination of backup strategies provides the fastest backup creation time?
A) Full backups and differential backups
B) Partial backups and incremental backups
C) Full backups and incremental backups
D) Incremental backups and differential backups

A

Full backups and incremental backups

Any backup strategy must include full backups at some point in the process. Incremental backups are created faster than differential backups because of the number of files it is necessary to back up each time.

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15
Q
What type of disaster recovery plan test fully evaluates operations at the backup facility but does not shift primary operations responsibility from the main site?
A) Structured walk-through
B) Parallel test
C) Full-interruption test
D) Simulation test
A

Parallel test

Parallel tests involve moving personnel to the recovery site and gearing up operations, but responsibility for conducting day-to-day operations of the business remains at the primary operations center.

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16
Q
What type of backup involves always storing copies of all files modified since the most recent full backup?
A) Differential backups
B) Partial backup
C) Incremental backups
D) Database backup
A

Differential backups

Differential backups involve always storing copies of all files modified since the most recent full backup regardless of any incremental or differential backups created during the intervening time period.

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17
Q
What is the typical time estimate to activate a warm site from the time a disaster is declared?
A) 1 hour
B) 6 hours
C) 12 hours
D) 24 hours
A

12 hours

Warm sites typically take about 12 hours to activate from the time a disaster is declared. This is compared to the relatively instantaneous activation of a hot site and the lengthy time (at least a week) required to bring a cold site to operational status.

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18
Q

What combination of backup strategies provides the fastest backup restoration time?
A) Full backups and differential backups
B) Partial backups and incremental backups
C) Full backups and incremental backups
D) Incremental backups and differential backups

A

Full backups and differential backups

Any backup strategy must include full backups at some point in the process. If a combination of full and differential backups is used, a maximum of two backups must be restored. If a combination of full and incremental backups is chosen, the number of required restorations may be unlimited.

19
Q
Once the BCP team is selected, what should be the first item placed on the team's agenda?
A) Business impact assessment
B) Business organization analysis
C) Resource requirements analysis
D) Legal and regulatory assessment
A

Business organization analysis

The first task of the BCP team should be the review and validation of the business organization analysis initially performed by those individuals responsible for spearheading the BCP effort. This ensures that the initial effort, undertaken by a small group of individuals, reflects the beliefs of the entire BCP team.

20
Q
What business continuity planning technique can help you prepare the business unit prioritization task of disaster recovery planning?
A) Vulnerability analysis
B) Business impact assessment
C) Risk management
D) Continuity planning
A

Business impact assessment

During the business impact assessment phase, you must identify the business priorities of your organization to assist with the allocation of BCP resources. You can use this same information to drive the DRP business unit prioritization.

21
Q
You are concerned about the risk that a hurricane poses to your corporate headquarters in South Florida. The building itself is valued at $15 million. After consulting with the National Weather Service, you determine that there is a 10 percent likelihood that a hurricane will strike over the course of a year. You hired a team of architects and engineers who determined that the average hurricane would destroy approximately 50 percent of the building. What is the annualized loss expectancy (ALE)?
A) $750,000
B) $1.5 million
C) $7.5 million
D) $15 million
A

$750,000

This problem requires you to compute the ALE, which is the product of the SLE and ARO. From the scenario, you know that the ARO is 0.10 (or 10 percent). From the scenario presented, you know that the SLE is $7.5 million. This yields an SLE of $750,000.

22
Q
Which one of the following is an example of a man-made disaster?
A) Tsunami
B) Earthquake
C) Power outage
D) Lightning strike
A

Power outage

A power outage is an example of a man-made disaster. The other events listed- tsunamis, earthquakes, and lightning strikes-are all naturally occurring events.

23
Q
Which one of the following items is a characteristic of hot sites but not a characteristic of warm sites?
A) Communications circuits
B) Workstations
C) Servers
D) Current data
A

Current data

Warm sites and hot sites both contain workstations, servers, and the communications circuits necessary to achieve operational status. The main difference between the two alternatives is the fact that hot sites contain near-real-time copies of the operational data and warm sites require the restoration of data from backup.

24
Q
Lighter Than Air Industries expects that it would lose $10 million if a tornado struck its aircraft operations facility. It expects that a tornado might strike the facility once every 100 years. What is the single loss expectancy for this scenario?
A) 0.01
B) $10,000,000
C) $100,000
D) 0.10
A

$10,000,000

The single loss expectancy (SLE) is the amount of damage that would be caused by a single occurrence of the risk. In this case, the SLE is $10 million, the expected damage from one tornado. The fact that a tornado occurs only once every 100 years is not reflected in the SLE but would be reflected in the annualized loss expectancy (ALE).

25
Q
What BIA metric can be used to express the longest time a business function can be unavailable without causing irreparable harm to the organization?
A) SLE
B) EF
C) MTD
D) ARO
A

MTD

The maximum tolerable downtime (MTD) represents the longest period a business function can be unavailable before causing irreparable harm to the business. This figure is useful when determining the level of business continuity resources to assign to a particular function.

26
Q
Which task of BCP bridges the gap between the business impact assessment and the continuity planning phases?
A) Resource prioritization
B) Likelihood assessment
C) Strategy development
D) Provisions and processes
A

Strategy development

The strategy development task bridges the gap between business impact assessment and continuity planning by analyzing the prioritized list of risks developed during the BIA and determining which risks will be addressed by the BCP.

27
Q
What type of database backup strategy involves maintenance of a live backup server at the remote site?
A) Transaction logging
B) Remote journaling
C) Electronic vaulting
D) Remote mirroring
A

Remote mirroring

Remote mirroring is the only backup option in which a live backup server at a remote site maintains a bit-for-bit copy of the contents of the primary server, synchronized as closely as the latency in the link between primary and remote systems will allow.

28
Q
In which business continuity planning task would you actually design procedures and mechanisms to mitigate risks deemed unacceptable by the BCP team?
A) Strategy development
B) Business impact assessment
C) Provisions and processes
D) Resource prioritization
A

Provisions and processes

In the provisions and processes phase, the BCP team actually designs the procedures and mechanisms to mitigate risks that were deemed unacceptable during the strategy development phase.

29
Q
Which one of the following BIA terms identifies the amount of money a business expects to lose to a given risk each year?
A) ARO
B) SLE
C) ALE
D) EF
A

ALE

The annualized loss expectancy (ALE) represents the amount of money a business expects to lose to a given risk each year. This fi gure is quite useful when performing a quantitative prioritization of business continuity resource allocation.

30
Q
What is the first step of the business impact assessment process?
A) Identification of priorities
B) Likelihood assessment
C) Risk identification
D) Resource prioritization
A

Identification of priorities

Identification of priorities is the first step of the business impact assessment process.

31
Q

What is the end goal of disaster recovery planning?
A) Preventing business interruption
B) Setting up temporary business operations
C) Restoring normal business activity
D) Minimizing the impact of a disaster

A

Restoring normal business activity

Once a disaster interrupts the business operations, the goal of DRP is to restore regular business activity as quickly as possible. Thus, disaster recovery planning picks up where business continuity planning leaves off.

32
Q
What type of mitigation provision is utilized when redundant communications links are installed?
A) Hardening systems
B) Defining systems
C) Reducing systems
D) Alternative systems
A

Alternative systems

This is an example of alternative systems. Redundant communications circuits provide backup links that may be used when the primary circuits are unavailable.

33
Q
In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, what industry made drastic changes that directly impact DRP/BCP activities?
A) Tourism
B) Banking
C) Insurance
D) Airline
A

Insurance

All the industries listed in the options made changes to their practices after September 11, 2001, but the insurance industry’s change toward noncoverage of acts of terrorism most directly impacts the BCP/DRP

34
Q
What type of plan outlines the procedures to follow when a disaster interrupts the normal operations of a business?
A) Business continuity plan
B) Business impact assessment
C) Disaster recovery plan
D) Vulnerability assessment
A

Disaster recovery plan

Disaster recovery plans pick up where business continuity plans leave off. After a disaster strikes and the business is interrupted, the disaster recovery plan guides response teams in their efforts to quickly restore business operations to normal levels.

35
Q
What is the first step that individuals responsible for the development of a business continuity plan should perform?
A) BCP team selection
B) Business organization analysis
C) Resource requirements analysis
D) Legal and regulatory assessment
A

Business organization analysis

The business organization analysis helps the initial planners select appropriate BCP team members and then guides the overall BCP process.

36
Q
Which one of the following alternative processing sites takes the longest time to activate?
A) Hot site
B) Mobile site
C) Cold site
D) Warm site
A

Cold site

The cold site contains none of the equipment necessary to restore operations. All of the equipment must be brought in and configured and data must be restored to it before operations can commence. This often takes weeks.

37
Q
What is the term used to describe the responsibility of a firm's officers and directors to ensure that adequate measures are in place to minimize the effect of a disaster on the organization's continued viability?
A) Corporate responsibility
B) Disaster requirement
C) Due diligence
D) Going concern responsibility
A

Due diligence

A firm’s officers and directors are legally bound to exercise due diligence in conducting their activities. This concept creates a fiduciary responsibility on their part to ensure that adequate business continuity plans are in place.

38
Q
What is the formula used to compute the single loss expectancy for a risk scenario?
A) SLE = AV x EF
B) SLE = RO x EF
C) SLE = AV x ARO
D) SLE = EF x ARO
A

SLE = AV x EF

The single loss expectancy (SLE) is computed as the product of the asset value (AV) and the exposure factor (EF). The other formulas displayed here do not accurately reflect this calculation.

39
Q

What does the term “100-year flood plain” mean to emergency preparedness officials?
A) The last flood of any kind to hit the area was more than 100 years ago.
B) The odds of a flood at this level are 1 in 100 in any given year.
C) The area is expected to be safe from flooding for at least 100 years.
D) The last significant flood to hit the area was more than 100 years ago.

A

The odds of a flood at this level are 1 in 100 in any given year.

The term 100-year flood plain is used to describe an area where flooding is expected once every 100 years. It is, however, more mathematically correct to say that this label indicates a 1 percent probability of flooding in any given year.

40
Q
What will be the major resource consumed by the BCP process during the BCP phase?
A) Hardware
B) Software
C) Processing time
D) Personnel
A

Personnel

During the planning phase, the most significant resource utilization will be the time dedicated by members of the BCP team to the planning process itself. This represents a significant use of business resources and is another reason that buy-in from senior management is essential.

41
Q
Of the individuals listed, who would provide the best endorsement for a business continuity plan's statement of importance?
A) Vice president of business operations
B) Chief information officer
C) Chief executive officer
D) Business continuity manager
A

Chief executive officer

You should strive to have the highest-ranking person possible sign the BCP’s statement of importance. Of the choices given, the chief executive officer is the highest ranking.

42
Q
What disaster recovery planning tool can be used to protect an organization against the failure of a critical software firm to provide appropriate support for their products?
A) Differential backups
B) Business impact assessment
C) Incremental backups
D) Software escrow agreement
A

Software escrow agreement

Software escrow agreements place the application source code in the hands of an independent third party, thus providing firms with a “safety net” in the event a developer goes out of business or fails to honor the terms of a service agreement.