Information Security Manager's Course of Action for New Vulnerability in Online Banking Application

A.

The MOST important course of action for the information security manager in this scenario is to assess the risk and advise senior management.

Explanation:

Assessing the risk associated with the newly discovered vulnerability is the first step in determining how to respond to the issue. The information security manager should conduct a risk assessment to evaluate the likelihood and potential impact of an attack exploiting the vulnerability.

Once the risk has been assessed, the information security manager should then advise senior management of the risk and recommend appropriate actions. Senior management must be informed as they are responsible for making decisions that affect the organization's overall security posture and can allocate the necessary resources to address the issue.

Identifying and implementing mitigating controls is also an important step to address the vulnerability, but this should only be done after assessing the risk and advising senior management.

Running the application system in offline mode may be an option in some cases, but it may not be feasible for an online banking application, which requires constant connectivity to serve customers.

Performing a business impact analysis (BIA) is also a critical step in managing risks, but it is not the most important course of action in this scenario. A BIA helps identify critical business processes and resources and assesses the potential impact of a disruption. It can be conducted after the risk assessment and before implementing mitigating controls to ensure that the most critical assets are adequately protected.