- A
Accept the risk because the application is used infrequently and the impact is limited.
Why wrong: Risk acceptance is possible, but it is not the best immediate action when a known high-severity flaw is exposed to a broad user population. The organization still has time to reduce exposure before the patch arrives.
- B
Apply compensating controls, such as restricting access and adding a temporary control, until the vendor patch is available.
This is the best choice because it reduces the likelihood of exploitation while the patch is unavailable. Restricting access to only the users who truly need the system, adding temporary network or application-layer controls, and documenting the residual risk are practical mitigation steps. The scenario shows the business can tolerate a short interruption, so a short-term reduction in exposure is more appropriate than doing nothing or permanently shutting the system down.
- C
Transfer the risk by purchasing cyber insurance for the application.
Why wrong: Insurance can help with financial loss, but it does not reduce the chance that the vulnerability will be exploited in the next 30 days.
- D
Avoid the risk by permanently decommissioning the reporting portal.
Why wrong: Avoidance would eliminate the risk, but it is unnecessarily disruptive for a portal that is still needed for finance operations and does not match the stated business need.
Quick Answer
The answer is mitigation, specifically applying compensating controls to reduce risk without eliminating it. This is correct because mitigation lowers the likelihood or impact of a threat—here, restricting access to only the finance team and adding a temporary web application firewall rule reduces the attack surface until the vendor patch arrives. On the Security+ SY0-701 exam, this scenario tests your ability to distinguish between risk treatment options: mitigation reduces risk, acceptance acknowledges it without action, transfer shifts it (e.g., insurance), and avoidance eliminates the activity. A common trap is choosing acceptance because the business can tolerate a brief outage, but the immediate best action is to actively reduce exposure, not passively accept it. Remember the mnemonic “MAT-A” for the four options: Mitigate, Accept, Transfer, Avoid—and when a temporary fix is possible, always mitigate first.
SY0-701 Security Program Management and Oversight Practice Question
This SY0-701 practice question tests your understanding of security program management and oversight. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A business-critical internal reporting portal is exposed to all employees. A scan finds a high-severity vulnerability, but the vendor says a fix will not be available for 30 days. The application is only used by finance once a month, and the business can tolerate a brief outage if needed. Which risk treatment is the BEST immediate action?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"best"Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
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
Apply compensating controls, such as restricting access and adding a temporary control, until the vendor patch is available.
Option B is correct because applying compensating controls—such as restricting access to only the finance team and implementing a temporary web application firewall (WAF) rule—immediately reduces the attack surface while the vendor develops a patch. This aligns with the risk treatment of mitigation, as it lowers the likelihood of exploitation without requiring a full fix. The business can tolerate a brief outage, so a temporary access control list (ACL) or IP whitelist is a practical, immediate measure.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Accept the risk because the application is used infrequently and the impact is limited.
Why it's wrong here
Risk acceptance is possible, but it is not the best immediate action when a known high-severity flaw is exposed to a broad user population. The organization still has time to reduce exposure before the patch arrives.
- ✓
Apply compensating controls, such as restricting access and adding a temporary control, until the vendor patch is available.
Why this is correct
This is the best choice because it reduces the likelihood of exploitation while the patch is unavailable. Restricting access to only the users who truly need the system, adding temporary network or application-layer controls, and documenting the residual risk are practical mitigation steps. The scenario shows the business can tolerate a short interruption, so a short-term reduction in exposure is more appropriate than doing nothing or permanently shutting the system down.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Transfer the risk by purchasing cyber insurance for the application.
Why it's wrong here
Insurance can help with financial loss, but it does not reduce the chance that the vulnerability will be exploited in the next 30 days.
- ✗
Avoid the risk by permanently decommissioning the reporting portal.
Why it's wrong here
Avoidance would eliminate the risk, but it is unnecessarily disruptive for a portal that is still needed for finance operations and does not match the stated business need.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may choose 'Accept the risk' (Option A) because the app is used infrequently, but they overlook that a high-severity vulnerability in an internal portal still poses a significant risk of lateral movement or data exposure, making acceptance inappropriate without compensating controls.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Compensating controls for a web application vulnerability often involve deploying a WAF with custom rules to block exploit payloads (e.g., SQL injection patterns or path traversal strings) until the vendor patch is applied. In a real-world scenario, a temporary IP whitelist could be configured via a network firewall or cloud security group to restrict access to only the finance team’s subnet, effectively reducing the attack surface to a trusted group. This approach follows the defense-in-depth principle, where multiple layers of security (network, application, access) compensate for a missing patch.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A security team runs a vulnerability scan on a web application and discovers an unpatched SQL injection flaw. The team prioritises remediation by CVSS score — critical flaws are patched within 24 hours, high within 7 days. Questions like this test whether you understand vulnerability management processes, scanning tools, and remediation prioritisation.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
- →
Security Program Management and Oversight — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
- →
Security Program Management and Oversight practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
- →
All SY0-701 questions
1,152 questions across all exam domains
- →
Security+ SY0-701 study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
- →
SY0-701 practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
Related practice questions
Related SY0-701 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
General Security Concepts practice questions
Practise SY0-701 questions linked to General Security Concepts.
Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations practice questions
Practise SY0-701 questions linked to Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations.
Security Architecture practice questions
Practise SY0-701 questions linked to Security Architecture.
Security Operations practice questions
Practise SY0-701 questions linked to Security Operations.
Security Program Management and Oversight practice questions
Practise SY0-701 questions linked to Security Program Management and Oversight.
Security+ social engineering questions
Practise SY0-701 questions linked to Security+ social engineering questions.
Security+ cryptography practice questions
Practise SY0-701 questions linked to Security+ cryptography.
Security+ IAM questions
Practise SY0-701 questions linked to Security+ IAM questions.
Security+ risk management questions
Practise SY0-701 questions linked to Security+ risk management questions.
Security+ incident response questions
Practise SY0-701 questions linked to Security+ incident response questions.
Security+ malware questions
Practise SY0-701 questions linked to Security+ malware questions.
Security+ vulnerability management questions
Practise SY0-701 questions linked to Security+ vulnerability management questions.
Practice this exam
Start a free SY0-701 practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SY0-701 question test?
Security Program Management and Oversight — This question tests Security Program Management and Oversight — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Apply compensating controls, such as restricting access and adding a temporary control, until the vendor patch is available. — Option B is correct because applying compensating controls—such as restricting access to only the finance team and implementing a temporary web application firewall (WAF) rule—immediately reduces the attack surface while the vendor develops a patch. This aligns with the risk treatment of mitigation, as it lowers the likelihood of exploitation without requiring a full fix. The business can tolerate a brief outage, so a temporary access control list (ACL) or IP whitelist is a practical, immediate measure.
What should I do if I get this SY0-701 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
2 more ways this is tested on SY0-701
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A business unit wants to keep using a customer portal even though a low-likelihood, high-impact dependency risk was identified. Leadership does not want to stop the service, but it does want to lower exposure and formally document the remaining risk. Which two actions best fit that approach? Select two.
medium- ✓ A.Implement compensating controls to reduce the chance or impact of the event.
- B.Immediately shut down the portal until the dependency risk is completely eliminated.
- ✓ C.Formally accept the remaining residual risk at the appropriate management level.
- D.Ignore the finding until the next annual audit cycle.
- E.Transfer the issue to the help desk by opening a routine support ticket.
Why A: Option A is correct because implementing compensating controls is a standard risk mitigation strategy that reduces the likelihood or impact of a dependency risk without stopping the service. For a customer portal, this could include adding web application firewall (WAF) rules, rate limiting, or failover mechanisms to lower exposure while keeping the portal operational.
Variation 2. A business wants to keep operating even if a supplier-related loss occurs, so it purchases cyber insurance to offset possible costs. Which risk treatment is being used?
easy- A.Avoidance, because the company is eliminating the supplier relationship
- B.Mitigation, because insurance removes the risk before it happens
- C.Acceptance, because the company is doing nothing about the exposure
- ✓ D.Transfer, because some financial impact is shifted to another party
Why D: Purchasing cyber insurance transfers the financial risk of a supplier-related loss to the insurance company. This is a classic risk transfer strategy, where the business does not eliminate or reduce the likelihood of the loss but shifts the financial impact to another party via a contractual agreement.
Keep practising
More SY0-701 practice questions
- An HR analyst must send a salary file to an external auditor. The auditor only needs names, departments, and salary tota…
- An investigator receives a suspect laptop drive that may be used in court. Which approach best supports a forensically s…
- An investigator must collect data from a suspected insider-threat laptop so the evidence could be used in an HR and lega…
- An NDR tool shows a production web server sending small, periodic DNS queries to random-looking subdomains under a domai…
- An investigator needs to make a forensic image of a suspect laptop without changing the original drive contents. Which t…
- An operations team manages Linux servers over SSH. The security team wants to stop direct management access from employe…
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This SY0-701 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 SY0-701 exam.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.