Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) — Question 40

Which of the following would be the MOST significant factor when choosing among several backup system alternatives with different restoration speeds?

Answer options

• A. Mean time between failures (MTBFs)
• B. Recovery point objective (RPO)
• C. Recovery time objective (RTO)
• D. Maximum tolerable outages (MTOs)

Correct answer: C

Explanation

The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the target duration for restoring systems and services after a disruption, making it the most critical factor when evaluating backup systems with varying restoration speeds. The other options, such as MTBF, RPO, and MTOs, do not directly address the speed of restoration, which is the key concern in this context.