CS0-003 Reporting and Communication Practice Question
An organization has experienced a data breach involving personal data of EU residents. Under GDPR, what is the maximum time frame within which the organization must notify the supervisory authority?
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
✓
72 hours
GDPR Article 33 requires that data breaches be reported to the relevant supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, unless the breach is unlikely to result in a risk to individuals' rights and freedoms.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
24 hours
Why it's wrong here
While some specific regulations or contractual obligations, such as certain state data breach notification laws or industry-specific requirements, might mandate a 24-hour reporting window, this is not the general requirement under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for notifying the supervisory authority. The GDPR specifies a different, slightly longer timeframe for such critical breach notifications.
- ✗
7 days
Why it's wrong here
A 7-day, or 168-hour, notification period is significantly beyond the legally mandated timeframe for reporting personal data breaches under major privacy regulations like the GDPR. Such an extended delay would almost certainly constitute non-compliance, potentially leading to substantial regulatory fines and increased harm to affected data subjects, as it severely impedes timely mitigation and response efforts by both authorities and individuals.
- ✗
48 hours
Why it's wrong here
Although a 48-hour timeframe is sometimes adopted as an internal organizational target for incident response or is cited in specific industry standards or older regulatory frameworks, it does not align with the precise legal mandate for notifying the relevant supervisory authority under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Relying on a 48-hour window for GDPR compliance would fall short of the explicit 72-hour regulatory expectation for breach reporting.
- ✓
72 hours
Why this is correct
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), specifically Article 33, explicitly mandates that organizations must notify the relevant supervisory authority of a personal data breach "without undue delay and, where feasible, not later than 72 hours after having become aware of it." This precise timeframe is crucial for enabling authorities to promptly assess the breach's impact and for organizations to initiate appropriate mitigation actions and fulfill their accountability obligations.
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Related to this question
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Remediation SLAs and Risk Acceptance
Key term
General Data Protection Regulation
A European Union law that gives individuals control over their personal data and sets strict rules for how organizations collect, store, and process that data.
Key term
Risk
Risk is the possibility that an event or action will negatively affect an organization's ability to achieve its goals, often measured in terms of likelihood and impact.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CS0-004 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 CS0-004 exam.