Cisco Cyber Security Practice Exam

Which type of exercise interrupts services to verify that a business continuity plan can respond to a specific incident?

1. Tabletop exercise

2. Functional exercise

3. Operational exercise

4. Simulation exercise

The correct answer is: Operational exercise

The correct answer is operational exercise. An operational exercise is designed to simulate a real-world incident in order to test and evaluate a business continuity plan's effectiveness in responding to that incident. During this type of exercise, services are intentionally disrupted to mimic a real outage or crisis situation. This allows participants to enact their roles and procedures under conditions that reflect the pressure and environment of an actual incident. This approach helps identify gaps in the business continuity plan and assesses how well personnel understand and execute their prescribed protocols in response to a disruption. By actively engaging in scenarios that cause service interruptions, organizations can gain valuable insights into their readiness and the effectiveness of their recovery strategies. In contrast, other exercise types, like tabletop or functional exercises, may involve discussions or simulations without actual service interruptions, which limits the ability to fully test the responsiveness of the plan in a real-world context. Therefore, operational exercises are critical for ensuring that a company is adequately prepared to handle significant disruptions when they occur.