ISACA Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) ExamDomain 5: Protection of Information AssetsHard
A CISA is evaluating an organization's business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery (DR) strategy. The organization has defined a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 4 hours for its critical financial systems. However, daily full backups are performed at 2 AM, and transaction logs are shipped offsite every 6 hours. What is the MOST likely impact on the organization's RPO during a disaster?
- AThe RPO will be 6 hours, missing the 4-hour objective.
- BThe RPO will be 24 hours, as only daily full backups are taken.
- CThe RPO will be significantly less than 4 hours due to transaction log shipping.
- DThe RPO will be met as long as the backups are successful.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. The RPO will be 6 hours, missing the 4-hour objective.
RPO defines the maximum tolerable data loss. With transaction logs shipped every 6 hours, the maximum data loss in a disaster could be up to 6 hours (the period between the last successful log shipment and the disaster event). This directly violates the 4-hour RPO objective.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. The transaction logs, despite being shipped infrequently, reduce the RPO from 24 hours (daily backup) to 6 hours, but still miss the target.
- C. The RPO will not be less than 4 hours; it will be at least 6 hours, as that is the interval of data synchronization.
- D. Successful backups alone do not guarantee RPO if the frequency of backups/log shipping is insufficient.
Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
The maximum amount of data, measured in time, that an organization can afford to lose during a disaster or outage.
- Determines the frequency of data backups or replication.
- A shorter RPO requires more frequent data synchronization.
- Crucial for data integrity and business continuity planning.
Memory trick: Your RPO is how far back you're willing to rewind the clock on your data.