220-1102 Security Practice Question
A technician observes that an employee printed a report containing customer Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and left it in the printer tray for over an hour. Which security principle has been violated?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse the clean desk policy with least privilege, because both involve controlling access to data, but least privilege applies to digital permissions while clean desk policy applies to physical document handling.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Clean desk policy
Clean desk policy. This policy mandates that sensitive documents, including those containing PII, must be removed from desks and printers immediately after use to prevent unauthorized access. Leaving a printed report in the printer tray for over an hour violates this policy, as it exposes customer data to anyone passing by, directly breaching confidentiality.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Least privilege
Why it's wrong here
Least privilege is an access control model that restricts users to only the minimum permissions needed to perform their job functions. In this scenario, the employee was authorized to access and print the customer report, so the violation is not about excessive rights or improper data access. The core failure is leaving the printed PII unattended, which is a physical security and document handling issue, not an authorization one.
- ✓
Clean desk policy
Why this is correct
A clean desk policy requires sensitive documents to be immediately secured in locked drawers or cabinets when not in active use, and mandates clearing printer output trays and workspaces before leaving. By abandoning a printed customer report in the open, the employee directly violated this administrative control, exposing personally identifiable information to anyone passing by. This is why the scenario is a clean desk policy failure rather than an access, workflow, or records lifecycle issue.
- ✗
Separation of duties
Why it's wrong here
Separation of duties is an internal control that splits conflicting tasks among multiple employees to reduce the risk of fraud or error, such as one person both approving and issuing payments. Printing a customer report is a single, isolated action with no conflicting responsibilities that require dual authorization or oversight. Therefore, this incident has no connection to segregation of duties; it is a matter of failing to safeguard physical output.
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Data retention policy
Why it's wrong here
Data retention policy governs the length of time records must be kept and the approved methods for their eventual destruction, such as shredding after the retention period expires. The employee's mistake was not retaining the report too long or disposing of it improperly, but leaving a live, sensitive document exposed while still in use. Even if the report was scheduled for retention, the policy has no bearing on whether an unattended printout is physically secure.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Data Sanitization: Wipe, Degauss, Shred, Incinerate
Key term
PII
PII stands for Personally Identifiable Information, which is any data that can be used to identify a specific individual.
Key term
Personally identifiable information
Personally identifiable information (PII) is any data that can be used to identify, contact, or locate a specific individual, either alone or when combined with other information.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1102 exam.