Hackers recently targeted a company with an attack that resulted in a system breach, which compromised the organization's dat a. Because of the system breach, the administrator had to bypass normal change management procedures. Which of the following change management activities was necessary?

An emergency change request is utilized when an urgent issue, such as a system breach or a critical service outage, must be resolved immediately. This process is designed to bypass the standard, more lengthy review and approval stages of the normal change management lifecycle. The primary goal is to implement a fix as quickly as possible to restore security, functionality, and mitigate further damage. The scenario described, where a data breach necessitates bypassing normal procedures, is the exact purpose of an emergency change.

A. Cancelled change request: This is incorrect because a change is actively required to address the breach, not to be cancelled.
B. Change request postponement: This is incorrect as the critical nature of a system breach demands immediate action, not a delay.
D. Privilege change request: This is a specific type of change, but it does not describe the expedited process used during a crisis.
E. User permission change request: Similar to a privilege change, this describes the what (the specific action) but not the how (the emergency process). ---

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2011). Special Publication 800-128: Guide for Security-Focused Configuration Management of Information Systems.

Section 3.3.2

Change Control

Page 21: The document states

"The change control process should also address emergency changes that must be made in a time frame that does not allow for the standard change control process to be followed." This directly supports the need for a separate emergency process for urgent situations like a security breach.

2. University of California

Berkeley. (n.d.). Change Management Process. IT Service Management.

Section: Change Models

Emergency Change: The university's official ITSM documentation defines an Emergency Change as "A change that must be implemented as soon as possible

for example to resolve a major incident or implement a security patch." This aligns perfectly with the scenario of a system breach.

3. University of Washington. (n.d.). Change Management. UW IT Connect.

Section: Change Types

Emergency Change: This resource defines an Emergency Change as "A change that must be introduced as soon as possible to repair an error in an IT service that is having a high impact on the business." A system breach is a high-impact event requiring such a change.